Amnesty International on Thursday accused Iran of firing internationally banned cluster munitions at Israel during the 12-day war in June that endangered the lives of civilians.
Citing new research, the rights organisation said that “Iran fired missiles containing sub-munitions into populated residential areas.” On June 19, the organisation said it had collected audio-visual evidence that the missiles fired by Iranian forces contained cluster munitions.
It further accused that “firing such weapons on civilian areas is banned under international law,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director at Amnesty International. "Iranian forces' deliberate use of such inherently indiscriminate weapons is a blatant violation of international humanitarian law."
Cluster ammunition is a specially designed weapon that releases multiple warheads, causing massive destruction in a widespread area. Often, some of them do not explode on impact and can cause casualties over time, particularly among children. Both Israel and Iran are part of the coalition group of the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the use, transfer, production, and storage of cluster bombs.
Amnesty said international law "prohibits the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons, and launching indiscriminate attacks that kill or injure civilians constitutes a war crime." Israel conducted what it calls preventive strikes on Iran aimed at dismantling their nuclear research facilities and hindering the process by taking out people associated with the programme.
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