Group Cites U.S. Tactics in Many Civilian Deaths (cluster bomb)

[DeepModem Mom]

Washington Post:

(note: Sky News television, London, reporting the cluster bomb issue as a major story this morning, with taped segment from Iraq featuring interviews with civilians)


Group Cites U.S. Tactics In Many Civilian Deaths
Cluster Munitions and Strikes at Hussein Assailed


The U.S. military killed and wounded hundreds of civilians during major combat operations in Iraq through the "misguided" use of ground-launched cluster munitions that deliver dozens of small bomblets or grenades, Human Rights Watch said in a report scheduled for release today....


"Coalition forces generally tried to avoid killing Iraqis who weren't taking part in combat," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "But the deaths of hundreds of civilians could have been prevented."....


Cluster munitions are designed to kill enemy soldiers and disable their weapons and vehicles by spewing their bomblets or other munitions across a wide area. But because they strike targets across "a broad footprint" and cannot discriminate between civilians and soldiers in an attack zone, Human Rights Watch said, their use raises "concerns under international humanitarian law" and, at the very least, requires commanders to balance military advantage against possible civilian casualties on a case-by-case basis.....


Cluster munitions are also highly problematic, the group said, because bomblets that fail to explode litter the ground after an attack and kill civilians who pick them up or step on them. Two cluster bomb systems used in Iraq by the U.S. Army, the group said, "leave shockingly large quantities of duds" on the ground.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57869-2003Dec11.html

[izzie]

1. Makes me think of Spain in the 30's

I had to read about it in History. Lot of art came out of that so one had to know what it was about.