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Advocacy Group Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday said that extremists from the Islamic State (IS) have been using clutter munitions in at least one location in war-ravaged Syria, and that the Syrian regime also continues to use the extensively banned weapon.
The New York-based group cited reports and photographic evidence from local Kurdish officials, and said that IS extremists had used several clutter bombs from July 12th to August 14th. The weapons were deployed in the town of Ayn al-Arab of Aleppo province in clashes between the extremist group and Kurdish forces.
The rights group added that it was likely the first time the IS was using such weaponry, and that it was unclear how they had acquired the weapons.
Cluster munitions consist of dozens, or even hundreds, of small bombs, and can be dropped by air or fired in rockets. They spread the smaller bombs over vast areas and are aimless in nature, often continuing to kill and dismember after the initial attack as unexploded bombs detonate.
The Syrian regime has been using the weapons as well in its war with the rebels trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad. The rights group said that regime troops had used over 249 such munitions since 2012, based on research, witness accounts and video evidence.
Syria is not a signatory of the Convention on Cluster Munitions; incidentally, the United States is also not a party to the agreement.
HRW urged everyone in the international community to sign the treaty, and repeated its call for arms embargo on the Syrian regime and other parties committing abuses in Syria.
“Any use of cluster munitions deserves condemnation, but the best response is for all nations to join the treaty banning them and work collectively to rid the world of these weapons”, HRW’s arms division director Steve Goose said.
“The U.N. Security Council should impose an arms embargo on the Syrian government and other armed groups that commit systematic or widespread rights abuses”, HRW added in a statement.