Russian Activists Claim Evidence of Russian Cluster Bombs in Syria

[pampango]

A group of Russian activists said on Thursday they had evidence that Russian aircraft deployed in Syria were armed with cluster bombs, challenging official denials.

Last month, the international rights group Human Rights Watch said recent evidence on the ground suggested that Russia had either dropped cluster bombs in Syria, provided a new batch to the Syrian airforce, or both. Russia's Defense Ministry denied HRW's allegations.

But the Conflict Intelligence Team, a group of Russian investigative bloggers, on Thursday published photos and video footage taken from Russian media and the Defense Ministry which the group said showed the munitions at the Hmeymin airbase in Syria, which is used by the Russian airforce. The group said the photos and film footage showed RBK-500 SPBE-D, RBK-500 SHOAB-0.5 and RBK-500 AO-2.5RTM cluster bombs on Russian aircraft deployed in Syria.

Russia is not a signatory to a 2008 United Nations treaty, which bans their use because of their indiscriminate nature and the threat to civilians posed by unexploded bomblets. Conflict Intelligence Team said in its report that as a successor to the USSR, Russia is bound by a Geneva Convention that prohibits indiscriminate attacks that harm civilians.

A duty officer at the Defense Ministry on Thursday said it could not immediately comment on the report because of a public holiday.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/activists-claim-evidence-of-russian-cluster-bombs-in-syria/554996.html

[EdwardBernays]

1. They're all the rage

ours are getting used against civilians in Yemen as we speak... it's a great time to be a cluster bomb manufacturer.

[pampango]

2. Indeed lots of dollars and rubles for cluster bomb manufacturers. n/t

[Sunlei]

3. watch this horror, at about 50 seconds-are those cluster bombs? a cell phone caught it.

doesn't look like anyone can live through that kind of bombing.

[Matrosov]

4. TOS-1 Buratino rocket launcher

Those were fired from Syrian Arab Army-operated Russian TOS-1 mobile rocket launchers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TOS-1

I think the Iraqi army has a few as well now.

However, I'm not sure whether those are just an insane amount of rockets hitting or if they are using cluster munitions.

[Sunlei]

6. not the launch part, thats from another location. The small explosions that covered the town.

[MattSh]

5. Plus, there's plenty of evidence of

American Cluster Fucks in Syria and throughout the Middle East.