What are cluster bombs?

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Cluster bombs are containers filled with lots of smaller bombs or submunitions.

The containers break open in mid-air, and the submunitions are scattered over a wide area, typically equivalent to 2 to 4 football pitches.

Anyone within that area is likely to be killed or maimed by the shrapnel and explosive blast of the bombs.

Cluster bombs have been used around the world for many years.

The UK has used cluster bombs extensively in Iraq (2003), Kosovo (1999) and the Gulf War (1991).

Most recently cluster munitions were launched against southern Lebanon by Israel, and to a far lesser extent by Hezbollah, in 2006, where the United Nations estimates that up to a million bombs remain unexploded on the ground - United Nations Mine Action Clearance Centre, September 2006.

Danger

Cluster bombs pose a unique threat to civilians as some of the submunitions fail to go off on impact, and are left on the ground.

These unexploded bombs effectively create minefields, preventing the farming of agricultural land or the rebuilding of homes.

Submunitions which fail to explode on impact can maim and kill children or adults who disturb them later on.

In the two months after the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, an average of 3 to 4 civilians were still being killed every day, and a third of these were children - Foreseeable Harm: the Use and Impact of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon in 2006, Landmine Action.

October 1999. Kosovo. An account recorded by Mines Advisory Group (MAG)

"A group of children had found an unexploded bomblet close to [Musa] village and after returning home talked excitedly about the unusual, bright yellow, cylindrical object. Worried villagers told them to stay well away. Despite warnings, a villager spotted the children standing next to the bomblet the following day, debating whether or not to pick it up. The villager, a man named Gani, told them to leave it alone and to leave the area immediately.