Summary: Non-signatory Syria has shown minimal interest in the convention. It has ignored calls to accede to the convention that multiplied after Syrian government forces used cluster munitions in mid-2012. Syria abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution on the convention in December 2017.

Syria is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions and it has denied possessing or using cluster munitions. At least 13 types of air-dropped and ground-launched cluster munitions have been used in Syria as well as an unknown type of rocket-delivered submunition. The vast majority of attacks have been attributed to Syrian government forces. The use of cluster munitions in Syria has caused widespread harm that has been met with strong condemnation.

Policy

The Syrian Arab Republic has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Syria has shown minimal interest in the convention and has not taken any steps towards accession. The Syrian government has commented publicly once, in 2011, on the question of whether it will accede to the convention. Its representative told States Parties that the government views cluster munitions as “criminalized by humanity” and said, “We appreciate the international effort to ban these weapons, but cannot sign due to Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights.”[1]

Syria abstained from the vote on a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution in December 2017 that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[2] It has not explained the reasons for its abstention on this resolution and on previous UNGA resolutions promoting the convention in 2015 and 2016.

Syria did not engage in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Syria participated as an observer in the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011. This marks its first and to date only attendance at a meeting of the convention.

Syria is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production and transfer

Syria is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions, but it has received and stockpiles them.

Stockpiling

Based on evidence of cluster munition use since 2012, Syria has imported or otherwise received at least 13 types of cluster munitions, as listed in the following table. When and how the Syrian government obtained these cluster munitions, and in what quantities, remains unknown.[3]

Types of cluster munitions used in Syria since 2012[4]

Use

Research continues to show that Syrian government forces are primarily responsible for using cluster munitions in the country. There were at least 36 separate cluster munition attacks between July 2017 and June 2018, while the Monitor reviewed, but could not confirm additional evidence of more than two-dozen possible cluster munition attacks. Previously, Cluster Munition Monitor 2017 reported at least 600 cluster munition attacks in Syria between July 2012 and July 2017, including 238 attacks between August 2016 and July 2017.

This indicates a significant drop in new use in the reporting period, but the number of cluster munition attacks was certainly higher as many attacks likely went unrecorded. Local residents, journalists, activists, and first responders continue to record and share evidence of cluster munition use in Syria, but such first-hand information has become increasingly scarce. Additionally, videos and photographs of cluster munition remnants often do not provide information on the date or circumstances of use.

During the reporting period, most cluster munition attacks were recorded in the governorates or provinces of Damascus and Idlib, while there was also new use of cluster munitions in Aleppo, As-Suwayda, Deir ez-Zor, and Rif Dimashq governorates.[5] All of the country’s 14 governorates except Tartus have experienced the use of cluster munitions since 2012 and As-Suwayda governorate was added to this list after a 22 May 2018 attack using OTR-21 Tochkaballistic missile and 9N24submunitions.

Various groups have reported new use of cluster munitions in Syria over the past year:

• Siege Watch issued a report on Eastern Ghouta that lists eight cluster munition attacks by Syrian government forces supported by Russia between 2 February and 11 March 2018.[6]
• Human Rights Watch investigated a 21 September 2017 cluster munition attack using ShOAB-0.5 submunitions on Qalaat Al-Madiq in Idlib that killed at least two civilians and injured at least one.[7] It identified at least 12 cluster bomb attacks inJisr Al-Shughur, Al-Tamaneh, and other parts ofIdlib governorate between 19 September and 30 September.

There is strong evidence that Russia stockpiles cluster munitions in Syria at its airbase at Hmeymim, southeast of Latakia city, and that it is using cluster munitionsin Syria or, at a minimum, directly participating together with Syrian government forces in attacks using cluster munitions on opposition-held areas.[8] There was a significant increase in the use of cluster munitions in Syria after Russia initiated a joint operation with Syrian government forces on 30 September 2015, but the overall number of reported attacks has decreased in the year to July 2018.[9] Russia has not explicitly denied its involvement in using cluster munitions in Syria, but claims that cluster munitions have been used in accordance with international humanitarian law and not indiscriminately.

There has been no evidence to indicate that the United States (US) or its partners have used cluster munitions in the Operation Inherent Resolve coalition operation against the non-state armed group Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq that began in August 2014.[10] In July 2016, a spokesperson for the US Air Force’s Central Command told the Washington Post, “We have not employed cluster munitions in Operation Inherent Resolve. This includes both U.S. and coalition aircraft.”[11]

IS used cluster munition rockets in Syria in 2014 and may have continued to use them since then.[12] As the Syrian conflict continues, it is not possible to determine with confidence if other armed groups have used cluster munitions. There is evidence that opposition forces have repurposed unexploded submunitions for use in air-delivered and ground-emplaced improvised explosive devices (IEDs). When activated by their victim, such devices are considered antipersonnel landmines prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty.[13]

Previous use

Previously, Cluster Munition Monitor 2017 reported at least 600 cluster munition attacks in Syria between July 2012 and July 2017, including 238 attacks between August 2016 and July 2017.[14]

All except two types of the cluster munitions used in Syria since 2012 were manufactured by the Soviet Union/Russia.[15] When the Syrian government began its air campaign on rebel-held areas it used RBK-series air-dropped cluster bombs containing AO-1SCh and PTAB-2.5M bomblets emerged in mid-2012.[16] It has used air-dropped cluster bombs since then, including RBK-500 cluster bombs containing ShOAB-0.5 submunitions and AO-2.5RT and PTAB-2.5KO submunitions.[17]

More advanced RBK-500 SPBE bombs containing SPBE sensor fuzed submunitions and a ground-fired 240mm 3-O-8 rocket-assisted mortar projectile have only been used in Syria since Russia entered into its joint operation with Syrian government forces at the end of September 2015.[18]

Government forces first started to use ground-launched cluster munitions at the end of 2012, deploying multi-barrel rocket launchers to fire 122mm SAKR cluster munition rockets containing DPICM submunitions.[19] In early 2014, Syrian government forces began to use Smerch9M55K and Uragan9M27K-series surface-to-surface rockets containing 9N235 submunitions fitted with self-destruct mechanisms.[20] Syrian government forces have also used Tochka9M79-series ballistic missiles.

Responses to the use of cluster munitions

The Syrian military has denied possessing or using cluster munitions, but rarely responds to or comments on new use of cluster munitions.[21] IS has not responded to its reported use of cluster munitions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has not explicitly denied Russia’s involvement in using cluster munitions in Syria, but rather claims that cluster munitions have been used in accordance with international humanitarian law and not indiscriminately.[22] In December 2016, Russia issued a three-page position paper on the use of cluster munitions in Syria that claimed “no cases of indiscriminate use of air weapons have been registered so far in the course of the counter-terrorist operation in Syria,” and concluded that “the question of the involvement of the Russian military personnel in the cases of indiscriminate CMs [cluster munition] use in Syria [is] totally inappropriate.”[23] In December 2015, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that “Russian aviation does not use [cluster munitions]” and that “there are no such munitions at the Russian air base in Syria.”[24]

The civilian harm caused by the use of cluster munitions in Syria has attracted widespread media coverage, public outcry, and condemnations from more than 145 states.[25] In September 2017, States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions adopted a report that “expressed their strong concern regarding recent incidents and evidence of use of cluster munitions in different parts of the world and condemned any use by any actor, in conformity with article 21.”[26] During the course of the meeting, approximately 20 countries and the European Union (EU) publicly condemned or expressed grave concern over new use of cluster munitions, with most citing Syria as the key country of concern.[27]

All of the convention’s presidents have issued statements since 2013 condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently Germany’s Ambassador Michael Biontino, president of the convention’s Seventh Meeting of States Parties.

At the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2017, the EU strongly condemned the Syrian government for what “may amount to war crimes,” including the use of cluster munitions.[28] The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) has condemned the continued use of cluster munitions in Syria, for example, in its statement to the UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2017.[29]

The previous UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki-moon has described “the carnage caused by cluster munitions in Syria” as “a direct violation” of international humanitarian law.[30]

States have adopted six UNGA resolutions since May 2013 condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, including Resolution 72/191 adopted on 19 December 2017 by a vote of 109 states in favor with 17 against and 58 abstentions, which expresses outrage at the continued use of cluster munitions.[31]

Since 2014, states have adopted 14 Human Rights Council (HRC) resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, including four since June 2017:

• Resolution 38/L.20adopted on 7 July 2018 by a vote of 26 in favor, five against and 15 abstentions, which “strongly condemnsthe continued use by the Syrian authorities of banned…cluster bombs.”[32]
• Resolution 37/29 adopted on 23 March 2018 by a vote of 27 states in favor and four opposed, with 16 abstentions, which “condemns the Syrian authorities’ use of…cluster munitions.”[33]
• Resolution 36/20 adopted on 29 September 2017 by a vote of 27 states in favor and seven states opposed, with 13 abstentions, which “condemns the Syrian authorities’ indiscriminate use of heavy weapons and aerial bombardments, including cluster munitions.”[34]
• Resolution 35/26 adopted on 23 July 2017 by a vote of 27 states in favor and eight states opposed, with 12 abstentions, which “condemns the Syrian authorities’ use of…cluster munitions.”[35]

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which reports to the HRC, has reported frequently on cluster munition use, most recently in June 2018.[36]