New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch on Thursday called on the Saudi-led coalition conducting operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen to stop using cluster munitions, saying it had uncovered of their impact inside the war-torn country, AFP reported
The watchdog said it had documented dozens of civilian deaths and injuries in seven attacks related in the northwestern province of Hajja between late April and mid-July during which cluster bombs were used.
“Cluster munitions are adding to the terrible civilian toll in Yemen's conflict,” HRW researcher Ole Solvang told AFP.
“Coalition forces should immediately stop using these weapons and join the treaty banning them.”
HRW told AFP its researchers had visited four of the sites where cluster bombs had reportedly been used and found unexploded submunitions or remnants of cluster munition rockets.
“Although the evidence is not definitive, several factors indicate that the Saudi-led coalition carried out the seven attacks,” it said.
HRW told AFP it had identified the weapons used in the seven attacks, which struck within 19 kilometers of the Saudi-Yemeni border, as US-made M26 cluster munition rockets.
