Cluster bombs on Iraq.

Italian Guy

Milforum Hitman
Pretty specific thread.
An Italian journalist from a communist newspaper (they call themselves communist) was kidnappend in Iraq. She is antiamerican. We are seeing videos of her being held as prisoners, and she's blaming the US-led coalition for using cluster bombs on Iraq. I know as late as April 2003 cluster bombs were used on al Hilla, south of Baghdad.
Can anyone tell me when and where did the US-UK use these bombs?
What targets were they used against?

Since I can see it's a very specific issue, I'd be satisfied with some links too.
Thank ya all.
 
chewie_nz said:
pretty sure it's banned (possibly by the UN) esp near urban areas becuase of delay action munitions from them

Check this out (from http://www.mcc.org/clusterbomb/fask.html):

Aren't cluster bombs banned?

There is no international treaty which specifically and clearly bans the use of cluster munitions. Some observers believe that international humanitarian law, which has established the principle of discrimination (discrimination between military targets and the civilian population) does in fact prohibit the use of cluster munitions. However most governments insist that cluster munitions are not inherently indiscriminate in their design, but only fail to distinguish between military targets and civilians if they do not function properly. Government discussions on cluster munitions in the context of the Convention on Conventional Weapons focus on technical adjustments to reduce the failure rate, international assistance for clearance of cluster munitions and other remnants of war, and assistance to victims.

• How many cluster bombs does the US have?

The U.S has many diffferent types of cluester munitions. For a good overwiev, see: www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/index.html
 
good info, cheers!

my personal feelings is that they are up there with landmines and should be got rid of. or maybe left for and "all out" war like WWII
 
Cluster Bomb Unit's (CBU's) are antipersonell munitions generally used against troop concentrations and unimproved troop positions.

CBU's are air delivered and disburse bomblets across a wide area. Most are generally useless against hardened or improved positions.

Improved Conventional Munitions. (ICM) are the artillery delivered version of a CBU's. They are deployed thru airbust of a round above the target.
 
chewie_nz said:
am i right in think that the cluster bomb is now a banned weapon?

I thought that they were banned, but they were used against Serbia in 1999. they were dropped in town of Nish, on market garden on Sunday morning. I think almost 100 civilians died. NATO said it is colateral damage. they had been used in some other places during that campaign. I would not be suprised if US uses this weapon in Iraq. actualy I am sure they use it. but as always, if it was not on CNN it did not happen`.
about 40% of bombs do not explode after they were dropped. they explode later. most of the victims of these are children, because they are qurious and want to check what it is. this bombs are made in orange colour, so if you are 9 years old you would probably want to play with it. most dangerous situation is if this weapon is used in urban earea.
 
03USMC said:
Sorry I've seen sub munitions from US CBU's and ICM's they aren't orange.

I am not talking about missle, I am talking about one piece of that, thing that falls on the ground. I saw some of these and I am sure it was not Fanta can.
 
Sub Munitions are the bomblets. Generally gray black or sliver gray in color with striker plates on the bottom. Some have red markings and some have red/orange "tails" made of heavy cloth that stabilize the muntion in descent. Could it have been another Countries manufacture?
 
Whispering Death said:
Cluster bombs are excellent weapons and arn't going anywhere... except maybe straight down ontop of the heads of our enemies.

cluster bombs are not exellent weapons. they may kill your enemy but they are probably going to kill his kid.the land mines are the same.
 
The kid shouldn't be around mass concentrations of enemy soldiers.

Are you going to illigalize dumb bombs because they fail to detonate like 5% of the time? They will just be sitting there waiting for a kid to jump on em'

How about guided missiles, they still have a pretty high miss rate these days and will smash into the widdow's house nextdoor instead of the weapons factory.

Or maybe we should illigaize bullets? The #1 killer of civilians in a combat zone are stray bullets.



Here's all I'm saying, landmines pose such a long-term threat to civilian safety that I am in favor of some sort of auto-detonation on them. But you've got to be cafefull not to get too warm and fuzzy when we are talking about war or you're going to outlaw weapons that would have kept you alive.
 
Whispering Death said:
The kid shouldn't be around mass concentrations of enemy soldiers.

Are you going to illigalize dumb bombs because they fail to detonate like 5% of the time? They will just be sitting there waiting for a kid to jump on em'

How about guided missiles, they still have a pretty high miss rate these days and will smash into the widdow's house nextdoor instead of the weapons factory.

Or maybe we should illigaize bullets? The #1 killer of civilians in a combat zone are stray bullets.

Removed by Admin! btw it is not question of failing to detonate, the problem is with bombs that explode later, not because of failiure but because they are made that way. battleground in modern war can be anywhere, so you can expect kids anywhere. you sholud think twice before you say something like this.
 
03USMC said:
Sub Munitions are the bomblets. Generally gray black or sliver gray in color with striker plates on the bottom. Some have red markings and some have red/orange "tails" made of heavy cloth that stabilize the muntion in descent. Could it have been another Countries manufacture?

maybe it was made out of states.
 
03USMC said:
Cluster Bomb Unit's (CBU's) are antipersonell munitions generally used against troop concentrations and unimproved troop positions.

CBU's are air delivered and disburse bomblets across a wide area. Most are generally useless against hardened or improved positions.

Improved Conventional Munitions. (ICM) are the artillery delivered version of a CBU's. They are deployed thru airbust of a round above the target.

Redleg said:
Here's some good info about the weapons and submunitions..

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/cluster.htm


Heey now we got what it takes. Thanks 03. I'm interested in knowing how recently they were used in Iraq. Still doing research.

Thanks RL, I'm going to check that out.
 
serbianpower said:
battleground in modern war can be anywhere, so you can expect kids anywhere. you sholud think twice before you say something like this.

What, saying the truth? Life isn't fair, we know that. But what you can't do is run through life believing it's a fantasy land when your soldiers' lives are on the line.
 
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