by Our Foreign Desk

HUMAN Rights Watch (HRW) warned yesterday that the Saudi-led coalition has been using US-supplied cluster bombs in its air campaign against Yemeni rebels.

The widely banned munitions contain dozens of bomblets which sometimes do not explode, becoming de facto landmines that can kill or maim long after they are dropped.

The rights watchdog group said that it had gathered photos, video and other evidence indicating that cluster munitions had been used in Saudi air strikes against the Houthi rebel stronghold of Saada province in Yemen’s northern mountains.

It said that analysis of satellite imagery suggested that the weapons had landed within 600 yards of populated areas.

Cluster munitions are prohibited by a 2008 treaty adopted by 116 countries, but not by Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners or the United States.

“Saudi-led cluster munition air strikes have been hitting areas near villages, putting local people in danger,” said HRW spokesman Steve Goose.

“Saudi Arabia and other coalition members — and the supplier, the US — are flouting the global standard that rejects cluster munitions because of their long-term threat to civilians.”

HRW said that the munitions used in Yemen appeared to be CBU-105 sensor-fuzed weapons manufactured by the Textron Systems Corporation and supplied to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates by the US in recent years.

The weapon is banned by the Convention on Cluster Munitions but Washington still permits its use and export, claiming an unexploded ordnance rate of less than 1 per cent.