Russia, Syria use cluster munitions – Human Rights Watch

The human rights activists claim that the cluster munitions have been used at least 20 times on the territory of Syria since September 30.

According to RBC, the human rights defenders collected detailed information about attacks in nine locations that had killed at least 35 civilians, including five women and 17 children, and injured dozens. Two attacks hit the camps for the displaced, one hit the school in the suburbs of Damascus, the report said.

The human rights activists claim that the cluster munitions used in Syria recently that Human Rights Watch was able to confirm were manufactured in the former Soviet Union or Russia. Some types of cluster munitions were recorded only after the Russian operations. This means that they were either used by the Russian forces or the Russian authorities delivered them t the Syrian government.

Human rights activists also stress that the Russian or Syrian forces were responsible for the attacks in the northern Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Hama, and Idlib as the armed opposition groups do not operate aircraft. All the recent cluster munition attacks documented by Human Rights Watch fell on the opposition-controlled territory. However, Human Rights Watch has not been able to determine whether Russian or Syrian forces were responsible in individual cases, as they use many of the same weapons

 The human rights activists also recorded the use of the 9M55K cluster munition rocket, fired from the base north of Hama city, in an area controlled by the Syrian military.

As a reminder, September 30, at least 30 people, including 12 children, were killed as a result of the attacks on ISIS.