Libya: Gaddafi's forces 'firing cluster bombs on Misurata'

By Damien McElroy
15 Apr 2011

Col Muammar Gaddafi's army is committing war crimes by indiscriminately firing cluster bombs into the besieged city of Misurata, according to witnesses.

Reports from the city on Friday said the Libyans had used mortar fired shells to disperse multiple bombs in residential areas.

The Geneva Convention 1949 protocol obliges armies to take all care to ensure civilians are not harmed in attacks on the enemy.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, condemned Col Gaddafis brutality toward civilians.

She said: "That is worrying information. And it is one of the reasons the fight in Misurata is so difficult, because it's at close quarters, it's in amongst urban areas and it poses a lot of challenges to both NATO and to the opposition."

Witnesses saw the cluster bombs explode in the overnight offensive. On Friday fragments of the Spanish made MAT-120 cargo mortar, which holds 21 smaller sub-munitions, were found. When scattered over a wide area, the bombs kill indiscriminately. Markings on the fragments show the mortars were made in Spain in 2007, which banned the weapon in 2008.

In a ferocious assault Col Gaddafi's troops killed dozens in Misurata on overnight from Thursday to Friday, including people in a bread queue.

"Last night it was like rain," Hazam Abu Zaid, a local resident who has taken up arms to defend his neighborhood, said, describing alleged cluster bomb drops.

Source: The Telegraph.
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8455041/Libya-Gaddafis-forces-firing-cluster-bombs-on-Misurata.html.