04 October 2016

Cluster Bomb Attack on Aleppo Hospital

The Cluster Munition Coalition is deeply shocked by the media reports that cluster munitions were used to attack a hospital in Aleppo, Syria.

On 30 September 2016, NBC News showed atrocious and compelling images of the devastated hospital M10 in Aleppo, reduced to ruins by air attacks. Images show submunitions among the rubble.

According to journalists Mac William Bishop and Ammar Cheikh Omar, the hospital was "among the few facilities that remained to treat the hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in the brutal new government offensive on eastern Aleppo."

The Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations in New York laughed and walked away when asked about the bombing.

"This most recent attack shows shocking disregard for human lives," said Megan Burke, Director of the Cluster Munition Coalition. "Attacking hospitals that treat civilians is a war crime. Repeatedly using weapons that are known to be indiscriminate, such as cluster munitions, is also a war crime."

Cluster munitions have been used continuously in the Syrian conflict since 2012, and with renewed intensity since the beginning of the joint Russian-Syrian operation in September 2015.

Some 162 states have condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria in recent years. Ongoing use underscores the urgent need to increase international pressure on the Syrian government and its Russian ally to cease all use and to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions.