How many civilians were killed by cluster bombs?

The Pentagon says 1: Iraq Body Count says at least 200.

John Sloboda and Hamit Dardagan

Tuesday 6 May 2003

It is understandable that the US government should wish to play down the damage done to Iraqi civilians by cluster bombs. The rules of war prohibit the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons. Cluster bombs are weapons which are incapable of being used in a manner that complies with the obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants. Those who use them in civilian areas therefore open themselves to charges of war crimes.

Even so, last month’s claim by the Pentagon that only one civilian has died from cluster bombing is breathtaking in its audacious distortion of reality. General Richard Myers, chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday 25th April:

Only one of the nearly 1,500 cluster bombs used by coalition forces in Iraq resulted in civilian casualties. An initial review of all cluster munitions used and the targets they were used on indicate that only 26 of those approximately 1,500 hit targets within 1,500 feet of civilian neighborhoods. And there's been only one recorded case of collateral damage from cluster munitions noted so far.1

But this was only part of the picture, for:

1 Agence France-Presse April 25, 2003

2 Human Rights Watch April 25, 2003

[...]Myers did not mention surface-launched cluster munitions, which are believed to have caused many more civilian casualties.

“To imply that cluster munitions caused virtually no harm to Iraqi civilians is highly disingenuous,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Instead of whitewashing the facts, the Pentagon needs to come clean about the Army's use of cluster munitions, which has been much more fatal to civilians.”2

Data compiled by Iraq Body Count from widely published press and media reports shows that at least 200 civilian deaths have already been reliably reported as being due to cluster bombs, with up to a further 172 less firmly linked deaths that also involved other munitions. The table below lists these 372 deaths and provides basic information for all reported incidents in which cluster bombs were involved. It reveals that 147 of the 372 deaths have been caused by detonation of unexploded or “dud” munitions, with around half this number being children.

Cluster bombs have been used by coalition forces right through the war. Basra, Nassiriya, Hilla, Najaf, Manaria, Baghdad: all these towns have lost scores of civilian lives in cluster bombing raids. The reports make sickening reading. For example Robert Fisk of the Independent wrote:

Terrifying film of women and children later emerged after Reuters and the Associated Press were permitted by the Iraqi authorities to take their cameras into the town. Their pictures - the first by Western news agencies from the Iraqi side of the battlefront - showed babies cut in half and children with amputation wounds, apparently caused by American shellfire and cluster bombs. Much of the videotape was too terrible to show on television and the agencies’ Baghdad editors felt able to send only a few minutes of a 21-minute tape that included a father holding out pieces of his baby and screaming “cowards, cowards” into the camera. Two lorryloads of bodies, including women in flowered dresses, could be seen outside the Hilla hospital.3

Not only do cluster bombs kill; they maim in particularly excruciating ways. On April 10th Pepe Escobar of the Asia Times reported that

3 The Independent April 02, 2003

4 Asia Times April 10, 2003

5 The Mirror April 03, 2003

6 Amnesty International April 08, 2003

All over Baghdad, the city's five main hospitals simply cannot cope with an avalanche of civilian casualties. Doctors can't get to the hospitals because of the bombing. Dr Osama Saleh-al-Duleimi, at the al-Kindi hospital, confirms the absolute majority of patients are women and children, victims of bullets, shrapnel and most of all, fragments of cluster bombs: “They are all civilians,” he says, “caught in aerial and artillery bombardment”. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is in a state of almost desperation. Its spokesman, Roland Huguenin-Benjamin, contacted by satellite telephone, still mentions casualties arriving at hospitals at a rate of as many as 100 per hour and at least 100 per day.4

The Mirror’s reporter Anton Antonowicz visiting a hospital in Hillah, wrote

Among the 168 patients I counted, not one was being treated for bullet wounds. All of them, men, women, children, bore the wounds of bomb shrapnel. It peppered their bodies. Blackened the skin. Smashed heads. Tore limbs. “All the injuries you see were caused by cluster bombs,” Dr Hydar Abbas told Antonowicz. “Most of the people came from the southern and western periphery. The majority of the victims were children who died because they were outside.” 5

The damage doesn’t stop when the bombs stop falling. Unexploded cluster bomblets continue to kill and maim. Their victims are predominantly children. According to Amnesty International,

Each canister contains 202 small bomblets the size of a soft drink can. These cluster bombs scatter and spray over a large area about the size of two football fields. At least 5 per cent of the bomblets do not explode on impact, turning them into de facto anti-personnel mines as they continue to pose a threat to people, including civilians, who come into contact with them.6

This means that on average 10 bomblets from each bomb remain unexploded. If the Pentagon figure of 1500 cluster bombs used is to be accepted, this alone makes 15,000 unexploded bomblets, each capable of killing half a dozen civilians.

So far, most of the victims clearly identified as children in these reports - from babies to young teenagers - have been killed after the cessation of direct bombing raids, often because they touched or attempted to pick up a brightly-coloured or otherwise enticing bomblet. More die every day, and could continue to do so for many months to come. Hamza Hendawi of the Associated Press came across one of the most harrowing cases in a Baghdad hospital:

In the deserted emergency ward, Mohammed Suleiman hysterically looked for his 8-month-old daughter, Rowand, brought in after a bomb her brother unwittingly brought home exploded. “Please look at her face and see how beautiful she is,” he screamed when he found the baby's lifeless body, covered with a blanket, her eyes half open, her nose and mouth bloodied.7

The lower half of her body had been blown away as she crawled on the floor, disturbing a cluster bomblet brought into the house by other children.8

7 Associated Press April 12, 2003

8 Newsday April 22, 2003

9 Amnesty International April 08, 2003

10 Reuters April 25, 2003

On April 8th, Amnesty International urged that

An independent and thorough investigation must be held and those found responsible for any violations of the laws of war should be brought to justice. The US and UK authorities should order the immediate halt to further use of cluster bombs.9

It is unsurprising to us that, on the same day as General Myers issued his “body count” of 1, the United States blocked international efforts to allow a United Nations Human Rights Commission investigator of crimes under Saddam Hussein to look at the post-Saddam period.10

Some countries had wanted the investigator to be given powers that would have allowed him to consider the behavior of U.S. and British troops now controlling Iraq after last month’s invasion.

Such blocking strongly suggests that the USA and the UK have much to hide. The data we have published tells a small part of the story which the Iraqi people are entitled to demand be told in full before they are asked to “put this war behind them.” The majority of the world’s people will surely support any such demand.

John Sloboda and Hamit Dardagan - Tuesday May 6th 2003

Incidents in which civilians were reported killed by cluster bombs or bomblets:

Based on details available to IBC on 6th May 2003. Source abbreviations are those used in the main IBC database. Any additional sources’ names are unabbreviated. Some numbers have been lowered from those given in the original reports to prevent overlaps and double-counting by IBC, but overall totals are unaffected.

Cluster bombing incidents from Iraq Body Count database
Date of incident	Date of bombing	Place	Circumstances	Reported civilians killed (Minimum)	Other details	Sources
22 Mar	22 Mar	Basra	“mostly cluster bombs”	50	Among the dead an infant aged two and and a decapitated eight-year-old	ABC Mar 23 WP 22 Mar AFP 22 Mar IBC x008]
23 Mar	23 Mar	Civilian areas of Nassiriya	“three or four” (pre-dispersal) cluster bombs	10	Over two hundred wounded	GUA 25 Mar CT 25 Mar IBC x019]
27-28 Mar	28 Mar	Najaf	Cluster bombing	26	-	REU 28 Mar RTE 28 Mar IHT 28 Mar IBC j006]
01 Apr	01 Apr	Nader district of Hilla	Cluster bombing witnessed by AFP journalist	33	Children among the dead	HT 01 Apr WP 01 Apr IBC x030]
02 Apr	02 Apr (1.30 – 6.00 AM)	Karama district of Najaf	Cluster bombing	40	Including father and two uncles of survivor Zahraa Hashem, fifteen, whose pelvis was crushed in the blast	AN 09 Apr MH 09 Apr KR 17 Apr IBC x057]
20 Mar – 03 Apr	20 Mar – 3 Apr	Mohammedia district	Suspected cluster bombings	41	-	ALT 08 Apr IND 04 Apr IBC j020]
03 Apr	03 Apr	Al-Dora district, Baghdad	High yield cluster bomb dropped on busy street	14	-	Iraqwar.ru 04 Apr Bonita News 04 Apr IBC k001]
9-21 Apr	09 Apr	Ghazaliya district of Baghdad	Cluster bombing, possibly from a B-52	19	Accounts from “partial survey” of residents	Newsday Apr 22 GlobalSecurity Apr 22 IBC x064]
10–17 Apr	Unknown	al-Tadhiya slum, Nasiriyah	Unexploded cluster bomblet picked up by boys	3	Boys aged between seven and fourteen	Times Apr 19 Statesman Apr 20 IBC j033]
11 Apr	Unknown	Baghdad	Unexploded cluster bomblet picked up by child	2	Killed children were friends of horribly injured Ali Hamed, ten, whose “stomach was cut open, spilling out his intestines”	Gulf News 16 Apr Newsday 15 Apr IBC j026]
11 Apr	09 Apr	Living-room of family, central Baghdad	Unexploded cluster bomblet touched by baby	1	Rowand Mohammed Suleiman, eight months old	TOI 12 Apr BG 11 Apr GUA 12 Apr IBC j022]
12 Apr	09 Apr	Footpath in Baghdad	Child picked up unexploded bomblet and dropped it	2	Haitham Tamimi, seven, and Nora Tamimi, nine	Newsday Apr 22 GlobalSecurity Apr 22 IBC x064]
07 Apr – 12 Apr	Unknown	Dura district of Baghdad	Unexploded cluster bomblets picked up by children	3	All from one family	AP 12 Apr ABC 12 Apr IBC x051]
07-15 Apr	Unknown	Al-Kharnouq district of Baghdad	Unexploded cluster bomblet picked up by boys	3	All children - Ghassan and Arkan Majid and their friend, Uday al Shimarey	KR 16 Apr Miami Herald 16 Apr IBC j027]
18 Apr	Unknown	Baghdad	Disturbing an unexploded M-42 cluster bomblet	1	Iraqi man killed and three US soldiers injured	GUA 19 Apr AP 25 Apr IBC x062]
19 Apr	Unknown	Baghdad	Unexploded M-42 cluster bomblet	3	Young girls - two died instantly, the third in hospital. One US soldier also died later.	KR 27 Apr CT 28 Apr IBC x070]
26 Apr	Unknown	Baghdad	Unexploded cluster bomblet	2	Girls playing outdoors - Dana, aged eight and Lamiya, aged six	KR 27 Apr CT 28 Apr IBC x071]
19 Apr	Unknown	Baghdad	Unexploded bomblet found in street by group of children	3	All children. Cousin and two friends of Ali Madhi Kathum, twelve, “whose left shoulder and arm were shredded”	AN 23 Apr IND 24 Apr IBC x059]
10 Apr – 24 Apr	Unknown	Dibs and Kalar, N. Iraq	unexploded ordnance – including cluster bombs	29	“More adults and children killed and maimed in these regions after the war than during it”	GUA 28 Apr CO 28 Apr IBC x068]
14 Apr – 21 Apr	Prior to 09 Apr	Kirkuk, N. Iraq	“mines and unexploded ordnance” – including cluster bombs	52	“mostly children”	DM 21 Apr MAG 21 Apr UPI 21 Apr IBC x058]
06 Apr-03 May	Prior to 06 Apr	Karbala	post-conquest cluster bomblet blasts	35	many bodies dismembered - one child aged six, Duaa Raheem, had her body “ripped in half”	TIME 03 May News24 04 May IBC x072]