Free Republic

Ukrainian forces began firing US-provided cluster bombs on Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine. Using cluster bombs in battle is a war crime. Joe Biden continues to destroy America’s reputation in the world. The Washington Post reported. Ukraine has begun firing U.S.-provided cluster munitions against Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine in a push to break up well-fortified Russian positions that have slowed Ukraine’s summer offensive, according to Ukrainian officials familiar with the matter.… pic.twitter.com/Q9oYqfQzTr — The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 20, 2023 The Biden administration decided two weeks ago to send thousands of cluster bombs to Ukraine despite these bombs being...

Taipei, Dec. 31 (CNA) Taiwan's Air Force will showcase its upgraded Indigenous Defense Fighters (IDF) Jan. 16, when the Ching-kuo fighter jets will be armed with locally developed Wan Chien weapons systems, the Air Force said Tuesday. Seventy-one out of more than 120 on-duty IDFs saw upgrades by state-run Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. to reinforce air-to-ground combat capacity on the decade-old jets. To take some of the burden off of the nation's F-16 fleet, Wan Chien (literally "ten thousand swords") systems have been added to the IDFs, giving the fighters the ability to fire cluster bombs with a range of...

India signs Sensor Fused Weapon deal By Craig Hoyle Textron Defense Systems has been awarded a $258 million contract to supply India with 512 of its CBU-105 Sensor Fused Weapons. Announced on 8 December, the Foreign Military Sales deal also includes the provision of 44 training units to the Indian air force. So far, the US Air Force has assigned $126 million of the total contract value, the Department of Defense says. The sale was first outlined by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in a September 2008 notification to Congress. At that time, it was projected as likely to...

Taiwan is developing a potent missile system that can strike airfields and harbours on the mainland, in a bid to nip a Chinese invasion in the bud, local media said Tuesday. The "Wan Chien" or "Ten Thousand Swords" missile system, which so far has cost nearly three billion Taiwan dollars (97 million US), passed an initial operating test earlier this year, said Defence Technology Monthly. Each missile carries more than 100 cluster bomb warheads capable of blowing dozens of small craters in airport runways, making them impossible to use, the magazine said. The missile is also designed to target harbours,...

(Tbilisi, August 15, 2008) ? Human Rights Watch researchers have uncovered evidence that Russian aircraft dropped cluster bombs in populated areas in Georgia, killing at least 11 civilians and injuring dozens, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called upon Russia to immediately stop using cluster bombs, weapons so dangerous to civilians that more than 100 nations have agreed to ban their use. "Cluster bombs are indiscriminate killers that most nations have agreed to outlaw," said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch. "Russia's use of this weapon is not only deadly to civilians, but also an...

LONDON — The draft of a treaty to ban cluster munitions was adopted by a group of 111 nations on Wednesday in Dublin after Britain dropped its longstanding opposition to any limitations on the weapons. The sudden shift by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is under pressure to combat his Labor Party’s declining political fortunes, created fresh pressures on the United States, which had counted Britain as one of its staunchest allies in opposing the ban. The treaty, hammered out in two weeks of talks in Dublin, had been under negotiation since February 2007. The nations accepting the treaty are...

A hearty group of FReepers and Gathering of Eagles members made sure that Code Pink's already busted Cluster Bomb Hunt was even more busted. After the 'hunt' received some early biased MSM press, it was decided not to let them go unanswered. We arrived in front of the White House around 9AM. And we were successful in our Mission. In the Washinton Times our own Kristinn Taylor received almost as much space as the 'hunt'. "..... The Code Pink "cluster bomb hunt" drew a counter protest from about 10 people, who lined up with a large banner on Pennsylvania Avenue,...

Shiites march in Baghdad for pro-Hezbollah rally The Associated Press Published: August 4, 2006 BAGHDAD, Iraq Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a massive show of support for Hezbollah in its battle against Israel. The demonstration was the biggest in the Middle East in support of Hezbollah since Israel launched its attacks against the guerrillas in Lebanon on July 12. The protest was organized by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose political movement built around the Mahdi Army militia has been modeled...

LONDON (Reuters) - British use of cluster bombs in the Iraq war could count as a war crime and justifies further investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor in the Hague, a group of international lawyers say. Seven academics from Britain, Ireland, France and Canada interviewed eyewitnesses and examined evidence to see if there was a case for referring British conduct to the court, said the pressure group Peacerights, which organised the review. "There is a considerable amount of evidence of disproportionate use of force causing civilian casualties," one of the lawyers, Professor Bill Bowring of London Metropolitan University,...

(IsraelNN.com) Tens of thousands of PA Gaza residents are taking part in the funeral for senior Hamas terrorist Ismail Shanab. Shanab was killed in an IDF offensive in Gaza on Thursday.

Click here to view the map (pdf file) The shocking extent of unexploded cluster bombs dropped by American and British planes, which litter Iraq eight weeks after the conflict, is revealed in detail for the first time today. The first map based on military intelligence to show the exact location of unexploded anti-personnel mines, cluster bombs and anti-tank mines, obtained by The Observer, shows the vast area of the country which is at danger from live munitions. Experts in clearing conflict zones of unexploded bombs say that millions of Iraqi adults and children are at risk, along with humanitarian aid...

REPTON, Ala. (AP) -- A 25-year-old Army sergeant from Alabama was critically wounded when a cluster bomb exploded as he tried to save an Iraqi child and members of his unit from being harmed by it, the soldier's family said. "He's a hero," Gibson told the Register, "a 100 percent hero. He threw himself on an unexploded cluster bomb to save a child and his unit."

A soldier profiled in the Mobile Register days ago was in critical condition Monday from severe injuries he sustained Saturday when he threw himself on a cluster bomb tossed by a 7-year-old Iraqi child, his mother and his wife said they were told by the military.

FOUR US soldiers on patrol and an Iraqi girl were wounded when the girl handed them a bomb and it exploded, American military officials said. They said they believed it was an accident. None of the injuries was life-threatening, said Colonel Michael Linnington, commander of the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, the wounded soldiers' unit. One soldier's leg was amputated. The girl, who appeared to be about seven years old, suffered a hand injury and was taken away by her family, apparently to a hospital. US forces were searching for her tonight to make sure she was safe. Linnington said the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Four U.S. soldiers on patrol were wounded Saturday when an Iraqi girl handed them an explosive and it blew up, American military officials said. They said they believed it was an accident. None of the injuries was life-threatening, said Col. Michael Linnington, commander of the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade, the wounded soldiers' unit. One soldier's leg was amputated. The girl, who appeared to be about 7 years old, suffered a hand injury and was taken away by her family, apparently to a hospital. U.S. forces were searching for her Saturday night to make sure she was safe.

If any Iraqi soldiers had looked up at the right moment, they would only have seen the contrail of a B-52. The crew of that plane, we are told, dropped what looked like a fairly standard 1,000-pound bomb. But this particular one, dubbed the CBU-105, is seeing its first action ever in combat, and according to the U.S. Air Force, it is especially deadly. "It's a fearsome weapon," said John Pike, the head of globalsecurity.org and an ABC NEWS consultant. "If an armored convoy is moving down a road, an attack by this cluster bomb unit would basically stop that...