First confirmed use of UK-made cluster munitions in Yemen
Since the start of the Saudi Arabia-led air campaign on 25 March 2015, Amnesty International has documented the use of six types of cluster munitions in Yemen (see full table below) by the coalition forces. Other credible sources including Human Rights Watch have also documented their use.
Amnesty International’s most recent mission confirmed, for the first time, that coalition forces have used UK-manufactured BL-755 cluster munitions in Yemen. The BL-755 was manufactured by Hunting Engineering Ltd in the 1970s. This variant, designed to be dropped from the UK Tornado fighter jet, contains 147 submunitions designed to penetrate 250mm of armour while at the same time breaking into more than 2,000 fragments which act as an anti-personnel weapon. The weapon is known to be in the stockpiles of both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.