Summary: State Party Iraq ratified the convention on 14 May 2013. Iraq has participated in every annual meeting of the convention, most recently in September 2016, and voted in favor of a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016.

In its initial transparency report for the convention provided in June 2014, Iraq confirmed that it no longer uses, produces, transfers, or stockpiles cluster munitions and is not retaining any cluster munitions for research or training. There has been at least one reported incident of Islamic State forces using cluster munition rockets against Iraqi government forces near Mosul in February 2017, but the Monitor could not independently verify this evidence.

Policy

The Republic of Iraq signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 12 November 2009, ratified on 14 May 2013, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 November 2013.

Under its national implementation measures for the convention, Iraq has reported its 2012 ratification law and other relevant legislation.[1] It is not known if Iraq will enact specific implementation legislation to enforce its adherence to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Iraq provided its initial Article 7 transparency report for the convention in June 2014 and has provided annual updated reports since then, most recently in the first half of 2017.[2]

Iraq participated in some meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but attended both the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008 as an observer.[3] At the Oslo Signing Conference, it pledged to sign the convention as soon as possible after completing national and constitutional processes.[4] Iraq subsequently signed the convention at the UN in New York in November 2009.

Iraq has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in September 2016. It attended the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015 and intersessional meetings in 2011–2015.

In December 2016, Iraq voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution promoting implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5] It voted in favor of the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[6]

In a statement at the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2016, Iraq described cluster munitions as a barrier to social development and a cause of environmental destruction.[7]

The Iraqi Alliance for Disability and other civil society groups campaign in support of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Iraq is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).

Production and transfer

In its initial Article 7 report provided in June 2014, Iraq declared that it does not produce cluster munitions.[8] Previously, in 2011, Iraq informed the Monitor that “There are no facilities that produce cluster munitions in Iraq.”[9]

Prior to 2003, Iraq produced two types of cluster bombs: the NAAMAN-250 and NAAMAN-500.[10] It was also involved in a joint project with Yugoslavia to develop the M87 Orkan cluster munition rocket (known in Iraq as Ababil).[11]

In the past, Iraq imported ASTROS cluster munition rockets from Brazil.[12] In 1996, Jane’s Information Group listed Iraq as possessing KMG-U dispensers (which deploy submunitions) and CB-470, RBK-250, RBK-250-275, and RBK-500 cluster bombs.[13] The United States (US) military’s unexploded ordnance identification guide lists the Chinese 250kg Type-2 dispenser as present in Iraq.[14]

Use

There has been at least one report of Islamic State  forces using cluster munition rockets containing DPICM-like submunitions against Iraqi government forces near Mosul in February 2017, killing one soldier.[15] The Monitor could not independently verify this evidence and cannot confirm the use allegation.

Coalition forces used cluster munitions in Iraq in 1991 and 2003. The US, France, and the United Kingdom (UK) dropped 61,000 cluster bombs containing some 20 million submunitions on Iraq and Kuwait in 1991. The number of cluster munitions delivered by surface-launched artillery and rocket systems is not known, but an estimated 30 million or more DPICM submunitions were used in the 1991 conflict.[16] During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US and UK used nearly 13,000 cluster munitions containing an estimated 1.8 million to 2 million submunitions.[17]

Iraq may have used cluster munitions in the past. According to one source, Iraq used air-dropped cluster bombs against Iranian troops in 1984.[18]

Stockpiling and destruction

In its Article 7 reports, Iraq has declared that it does not stockpile cluster munitions.[19]

Photographs published by the official media office in Kirkuk in 2015 showed IS forces unearthing at least 34 BKF cartridges containing AO-2.5RT submunitions that had been buried in the ground.[20] The exact date, location, and circumstances of this discovery was unclear, but burial has been used as a method for disposal of stocks in Iraq in the past. Iraq has not disclosed any discovery or seizure of stockpiled cluster munitions in its annual transparency reports.

Iraq states that it is not retaining any cluster munitions for research or training purposes. It previously said it would retain a small quantity of 25 inert submunitions with no explosive content.[21] However in June 2016, Iraq no longer reported the inert submunitions, but instead wrote “not applicable” in its Article 7 report.[22]