Tensions in the Middle East escalated this week as reports emerged that Iran may have fired cluster bombs during a strike on Israeli territory. Iran fired at least one missile at Israel that scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties, the Israeli military said on Thursday. The news has raised global concerns, as cluster bombs are considered among the most controversial weapons in modern warfare.
What are Cluster bombs?
Cluster munitions are dropped as bombs from airplanes or fired as rockets from howitzers, artillery guns and rocket launchers. They contain hundreds of smaller submunitions, known as “bomblets”, that then fall indiscriminately over wide areas that range in size from a few soccer fields to several hectares of land.
Such munitions have been in use since World War Two and were deployed extensively in the Vietnam War, for example. During that conflict, the US dropped some 260 million of them on neighboring Laos, making it the country with the world's highest level of cluster munition contamination.
Why are cluster bombs banned?
Cluster bombs not only kill soldiers, but civilians, including many children. According to Humanity & Inclusion, a France-based charity organization also known as Handicap International, only about 40% of the smaller bomblets contained in a cluster bomb detonate upon impact. The undetonated ones can still pose a deadly threat decades after they are deployed: The munitions remain ready to explode and can maim or kill a person at any time. They work in a similarly disastrous way to landmines, sometimes rendering affected areas uninhabitable. Some areas of Laos, for example, remain completely contaminated decades after the end of the war.
Civilian populations are especially affected by the use of cluster bombs. The 2022 monitoring report compiled by the Cluster Munition Coalition found that 97% of victims were civilians and 66% of those injured or killed were children. As of August 2022, Ukraine was the only country where cluster munitions were being deployed, according to the report.
Are cluster bombs legal?
While not banned outright globally, over 120 countries have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), which prohibits their use, production, transfer, and stockpiling. Notably, Iran, Israel, the U.S., and India are not signatories to this treaty.
