The Obama Administration’s mid-December attack on a Yemeni town is continuing to pose dangers for civilians, it is being reported, and the 52 people killed so far in the missile strike may not be the final toll.
Amnesty International has released photos showing that cluster bomblets from the US missile strike remain unexploded on the ground near the site of the attack.
One of only a handful of nations in the world which still has not signed the cluster munitions ban, US attacks with the bomblets have been regularly criticized as killing civilians months and even years after the initial strike, as unexploded ordinance remains in the area waiting for someone to trigger it.
The US attack was part of a broader coordinated attack with the Yemeni government, which killed around 120 people overall. President Obama called Yemeni President Saleh after the attack to congratulate him, and the Yemeni government initial claimed a large number of al-Qaeda members slain It was later revealed, however, that virtually everyone killed was a civilian, and that most were women and children.
Cluster munitions are an effective anti-personnel munition. However, using them in areas with civilian populations is ghastly since they are something of an area denial weapon. It prevents people from re-building after their homes have been destroyed which feeds into refugee problems that some countries have. I'm just trying to figure out what advantage cluster bombs have that can't be easily duplicated by other kinds of bombs and am drawing a blank.