Qaddafi's cluster shells hit Misrata
Image via WikipediaMilitary forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi have been firing into residential neighborhoods in this embattled city with heavy weapons, including cluster bombs that have been banned by much of the world and ground-to-ground rockets, according to witnesses and survivors, as well as physical evidence.I would be surprised if he were actually able to bomb the area with the no fly zone in effect, unless NATO is asleep at the switch. I suspect they are cluster munitions delivered by artillery or rocket fire.
Both of these so-called “indiscriminate” weapons, which strike large areas with a dense succession of high-explosive munitions, by their nature cannot be fired precisely. When fired into populated areas they place civilians at grave risk.
The dangers were evident beside one of the impact craters on Friday, where eight people had been killed while standing in a bread line. Where a crowd had assembled for food, bits of human flesh had been blasted against a cinder block wall.
The use of such weapons in these ways could add urgency to the arguments by Britain and France that the alliance needs to step up attacks on the Qaddafi forces, to better fulfill the United Nations mandate to protect civilians.
It could also apply conflicting pressures on the United States. President Obama has spoken strongly about how American air power helped avert a humanitarian crisis in Libya, but also insisted on pulling back that air power and ceding control of the campaign to NATO earlier this month, a hand-off that seemed to embolden the Qaddafi forces. At the same time, the United States has used cluster munitions itself, in battlefield situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in a strike on suspected militants in Yemen in 2009.
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It is not at all surprising that he would use them. He has shown himself to be without inhibitions in attacking his enemies. He has already been using sniper fire in the same city in order to attack civilians. BTW, he bought the sniper rifles from the Brits just a few months ago.
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