US-Supplied Cluster Bombs Used by Saudi Arabia in Yemen: Report

The small bombs, if unexploded, can lie dormant and then detonate when people stumble upon one by chance, killing or maiming them as a result.

An international treaty against cluster bombs has been adopted by 116 countries, but the United States, Saudi Arabia and Yemen are not among them.

CNN has reached out to officials in Washington and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for comment on the allegations and is awaiting responses.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) included video, marked-up satellite maps and photos in its report.

The video shows delivery devices falling from the sky by small parachutes then deploying the bombs with a burst of black smoke in midair. Shallow explosions spread over areas on the ground below. The images were shot by pro-Houthis in April, HRW said.

The particular cluster munition systems HRW said were used are CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons, which are guided bombs intended to take out tanks and other armored vehicles with a flurry of explosions spread out over an area.

If the cluster bombs fail to detect their target, they are designed to self-destruct in the air, or if that fails, to deactivate themselves after a short time. But sometimes those mechanisms don't work, posing a lethal danger for those who later encounter them.

The US Department of Defense has said it will stop the transfer to foreign governments of cluster munitions that leave behind more than 1% of their bombs unexploded -- but not until after 2018.

"Saudi-led cluster munition airstrikes have been hitting areas near villages, putting local people in danger," Steve Goose, the director of HRW's arms division, said in a statement. "These weapons should never be used under any circumstances."

The human rights activists say the cluster munitions were dropped over northern Sa’ada governorate, a Houthi stronghold near Saudi Arabia. The satellite map shows the target area in the mountains above the villages of al-Ssam and al-Safraa.

About 5,000 people live in al-Safraa in times of peace, HRW said.

On March 26, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies began to militarily interfere in Yemen's internal affairs by launching deadly air strikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

The Saudi-led coalition announced on April 21 that its military operation "Decisive Storm" has ended, but hours later, air strikes and ground fighting resumed.

According to the spokesman of the Yemeni Army, the Saudi-led war on the Arab country has killed 2,051 people, most of them civilians.