US White House Suspends Cluster Bomb Transfers to Saudi Arabia

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A leading U.S.-based foreign policy journal says the White House has quietly suspended the transfer of cluster bombs to ally Saudi Arabia, in response to the Sunni kingdom's aerial war against Shi'ite rebels in Yemen.

Foreign Policy magazine, in a news story published Friday, quoted an unnamed senior U.S. official as saying a hold was placed on such shipments following reports that the Saudi-led coalition battling Houthi rebels used the controversial munitions in civilian areas.

More than 100 nations have signed a 2008 treaty banning the munitions, which are known for striking targets as duds, only to explode and maim civilians months or years later.  Major cluster bomb manufacturing countries, including the United States, China and Russia, have not signed the agreement.

The U.S. move comes just weeks after the rights organization Human Rights Watch published a report detailing the use of cluster bombs near civilian areas in Yemen, located on the southern end of the Arabian peninsula.

That report builds on HRW claims in 2015 that the Saudi-led coalition used cluster rockets in at least seven attacks in Yemen's northwestern Hajja governate, killing and wounding dozens of civilians.

At that time, HRW advocacy director Mary Wareham told VOA that Yemeni villagers were collecting unexploded cluster cannisters and turning them over to HRW researchers, who then visited target areas to collect their own evidence.

Neither the White House nor Saudi officials have publicly confirmed the Foreign Policy report, which said the suspension includes CBU-105 cluster bombs manufactured by the U.S.-based firm Textron Systems.

It said those bombs hit targets in at least four different locations in the war-torn country.