The US dropped nearly a quarter million cluster ‘‘bomblets’’ during its war against terrorism in Afghanistan, killing and injuring scores of civilians, particularly children, both during and after strikes, the Human Rights Watch said today. In a 65-page report — ‘‘Fatally flawed: Cluster bombs and their use by the US in Afghanistan’’ — the watch charged the US with violating the international humanitarian law by using cluster bombs in or near civilian areas which left an estimated 12,400 explosive duds — ‘‘de facto anti-personnel landmines’’ — that continue to take civilians lives even now.The report finds that the US did made some effort to reduce the civilian harm but the fundamental problem of the weapon remained. The Watch has previously documented the harm to civilians from US cluster bombs in the 1991 Gulf War and 1999 Yugoslav air campaign. The report found that the humanitarian side effects of cluster bombs were less serious in Afghanistan than in the earlier two conflicts, in part due to the smaller number of bombs used.‘‘As war looms in Iraq, the US should learn from the lessons of its Afghanistan air war,’’ said Bonnie Docherty, the author of the report.The report presents findings of a month-long mission to Afghanistan and compares use of the bombs with that of Gulf War and Kosovo. (PTI)
