The Syrian Conflict Thread

Yes, it does.

A short time before the bomblets are released, the cluster bomb begins to spin. The canister opens at an altitude of between 1000m and 100m. The height, velocity and rotation speed determine how large an area will be covered by the bomblets

Each bomblet is the size of a soft drink can. They deploy a little parachute that stabilizes them and makes sure that they descend with their nose down. Each of the bomblets holds hundreds of metal pieces, which can pierce armour

http://www.clusterbombs.org.uk/cluster-munitions/how-do-they-work/

CB.jpg
 
Last edited:
Here is a proper story on Cluster Bombs with proof, OK!

New Report of U.S.-Made Cluster Bomb Use by Saudis in Yemen

Human Rights Watch released a report Sunday providing new indications that Saudi Arabia has fired American-made cluster munitions, banned by international treaty, in civilian areas of Yemen, and said their use may also violate United States law.

The report included photographs from Yemen purporting to show unexploded but potentially lethal remnants of American cluster weapons, suggesting that they had failed legally required reliability standards.

If confirmed, the report could put new pressure on the United States over support for its ally Saudi Arabia in the Yemen conflict. The Americans have sold arms and furnished training and expertise to a Saudi-led coalition that has faced widespread criticism for what rights groups call an indiscriminate bombing campaign against Yemen’s Houthi rebels in nearly a year of fighting.

“Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners, as well as their U.S. supplier, are blatantly disregarding the global standard that says cluster munitions should never be used under any circumstances,” Steve Goose, the arms director at Human Rights Watch, said in the report.

Human Rights Watch and other groups have previously accused Saudi Arabia of using cluster munitions in Yemen, including in a Jan. 6 strike in Sana, the capital, and have criticized the United States as an accomplice

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/15/w...made-cluster-bomb-use-by-saudis-in-yemen.html
 
I just don't understand why countries would sign these treaties when they know their competitors won't.

Europe: We're Europe and we've signed up to this treaty to ban these weapons.
Others: We're the US of A, China and Russia, and we didn't sign sht.
Europe: Well.... that puts us at a massive disadvantage in conventional warfare.... but we have the moral highground, that's useful.
Others: No it isn't.

Those who signed the treaty clearly never played Worms, cluster bombs may not be all that contained, but they're damn effective, just tunnel deep or put girders above your worm's head before letting rip ... :whistle:
 
Thanks.

I am in two minds about these weapons. Gotta win a war the easiest cheapest way, but civilians usually pay the price
It's the dud rates that bothers me. The unexploded bomblets basically become land mines. Usually to be discovered by overly curious children hoping to find out what the shiny orange thing lying half buried in the ground is all about...
 
Source: http://time.com/4224396/russian-prime-minister-dmitry-medvedev-syria/

Asked to respond to the U.N. report, which cited “considerable documentary material” as proof of war crimes, Medvedev said it needs to be carefully studied and, “if it contains solid proof, it must receive an international legal assessment.” But such accusations would not, on their own, get between Russia and its allies in the Syrian regime. “Allies can differ in nature,” Medvedev said when asked about this.

Some alliances, such as the ones between prewar Syria and its former partners in France, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, can fall apart in no time when conflicts flare. “They helped Syria develop, and then reversed their positions overnight,” Medvedev said, while the bonds between Russia and Syria have proven more resilient. “So, the question now is not about who we call an ally, but about responsible behavior.”

Continuing on the subject of uncomfortable alliances, the Prime Minister noted that a variety of corrupt and violent despots have enjoyed U.S. support over the years. To make the point, he invoked the famous phrase—“He’s a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch”— that President Franklin Roosevelt is alleged to have said of the Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1939.
 
Airstrikes on a hospital affiliated with Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), and a children’s hospital in Syria were carried out by aircraft departing the US Incirlik Airbase in Turkey, a member of the Russian upper house’s Committee on International Policy said Tuesday

“Reconnaissance data shows that the planes carrying out the strikes on these civilian facilities took to the skies from the US base in Turkey’s Incirlik where US-led coalition and Turkish airplanes are based,” Senator Igor Morozov told RIA Novosti.

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160216/1034831694/syria-hospital-us-coalition.html

The USA has a history of bombing MSF Hospitals
 
Russia rejects Syria war crimes claim over hospital attacks

Russia says it "categorically rejects" accusations of war crimes over the bombing of hospitals in Syria.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "those who make such statements are not capable of backing them up with proof".

Up to 50 people were killed in missile attacks on at least four hospitals and two schools in rebel-held areas of northern Syria on Monday.

The UN said the "deliberate" targeting of such facilities "could amount to war crimes", according to Reuters.

Turkey's foreign ministry has blamed Russia for the attacks.

A Turkish official on Tuesday said it would back a ground operation in Syria but only "with our international allies.

"There is not going to be a unilateral military operation from Turkey to Syria," the unnamed official told reporters in Istanbul.


More at:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35586886
 
Not true, the latest reports of them bombing a hospital in Afghanistan are not accurate, they used a AC-130 gunship to repeatedly fire artillery shells at the hospital for more than an hour, they didn't use "bombs" ... :p

Kunduz Hospital Airstrike

One month ago, on Saturday 3 October 2015, the MSF Trauma centre in Kunduz was hit several times during sustained bombing by coalition forces, and was very badly damaged.

The total number of dead is known to be at least 42, including 24 patients, 14 staff and 4 caretakers

K.jpg

http://www.msf.org/topics/kunduz-hospital-airstrike
 
Last edited:
Kunduz Hospital Airstrike



http://www.msf.org/topics/kunduz-hospital-airstrike

Now you go and explain to them that they were not bombed but fired upon repeatedly with artillery shells

BTW you could've Googled this yourself

I did and btw I was being facetious ... it is a terribly pedantic thing to point out, but the plane that attacked the hospital, the AC-130 gunship, does not actually carry bombs, it is not a bomber, it is a gunship.

Of course the shells coming out of it's multiple high caliber cannons will decimate a target with such force it will pretty much feel like a bomb and look like a bomb on impact, think Call of Duty 4's "Death from above" mission :p

EDIT: feel the need to point out this is much worse than bombing a hospital, a bomb you can drop near an unintended target and kill innocent people with, an AC-130 gunship attack circling a hospital for over an hour and repeatedly pummeling it with artillery specifically targeted at the hospital is a next level war crime the US needs to damn well answer for, but instead they prefer to point the finger at others when it comes to war crimes ...
 
Last edited:
I did and btw I was being facetious ... it is a terribly pedantic thing to point out, but the plane that attacked the hospital, the AC-130 gunship, does not actually carry bombs, it is not a bomber, it is a gunship.

Of course the shells coming out of it's multiple high caliber cannons will decimate a target with such force it will pretty much feel like a bomb and look like a bomb on impact, think Call of Duty 4's "Death from above" mission :p

EDIT: feel the need to point out this is much worse than bombing a hospital, a bomb you can drop near an unintended target and kill innocent people with, an AC-130 gunship attack circling a hospital for over an hour and repeatedly pummeling it with artillery specifically targeted at the hospital is a next level war crime the US needs to damn well answer for, but instead they prefer to point the finger at others when it comes to war crimes ...


lol, he tried to do a ninja edit.

he seriously lacks a sense of humor.
 
lol, he tried to do a ninja edit.

he seriously lacks a sense of humor.

NarrowBandftw is right in that using theAC-130 Gunships is much worse than bombing, if that's all the USA used. It amounts to indiscriminate murder by the USA which is a War Crime. That's why I edited my post to reflect that possibility. MSF does report it as a Bombing on their website.

Thanks crackersa for keeping me honest and humble

My apologies NarrowBandftw
 
NarrowBandftw is right in that using theAC-130 Gunships is much worse than bombing, if that's all the USA used. It amounts to indiscriminate murder by the USA which is a War Crime. That's why I edited my post to reflect that possibility. MSF does report it as a Bombing on their website.

Thanks crackersa for keeping me honest and humble

My apologies NarrowBandftw

How does it amount to indiscriminate murder? The targeting systems on the specters are some of the best in the world. You do realize how hard it would be to hit a target in a moving plane with a howitzer if there was no targeting system?
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X