09 July 2023 , 13:21
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A Syrian doctor is horrified that US President Joe Biden is defending his "very difficult decision" to give Ukraine "dirty and deceptive" cluster bombs.
Biden has faced very harsh criticism for committing to sending Kyiv the weapons, despite many NATO allies banning cluster bombs over their track record of killing and maiming civilians.
Doctor Muhammad Walid Tamer was treating patients at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Saraqib, northwestern Syria in 2013 when it came under attack. He believes it was a cluster bomb as the description fits with the scores of bomblets deposited over the wide area.
"The worst part of the story was that my good friend, a pharmacist, Mohamed Dandil died", Dr Walid tells the Mirror.
A damaged camp after a cluster bomb attack carried out by Assad regime forces in Idlib, Syria (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)Cluster munitions have been banned by 123 countries, excluding the US and Russia, under international law and are viewed as a war crime by many countries.
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The United States dropped thousands of cluster munitions on Iraq and Afghanistan during the course of the wars there.
The bombs were invented by the Nazis to kill as many as possible. After flying through the sky, they can unleash hundreds of bomblets to the ground below, carpeting an area the size of a football pitch. Some fall onto people, penetrating their flesh, and others bury deep into farmland and among the rubble of houses.
Dr Walid continued: "Mohamed left the hospital to bring us coffee from a nearby place, and on his way back, a cluster bomb was dropped right in front of the hospital, scattering bombs resembling mushroom shapes around the premises. He was rushed to the emergency room and I was one of the doctors who tried to save his life but sadly he died.
"I stared at his lifeless face and apologised to him because it was me who asked for a coffee. It's an incredibly painful memory to be unable to save your friend. The cleaning worker was killed too and another nurse was injured. Yes, they are dirty and deceptive weapons."
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According to Cluster Munitions Monitor, globally some 40 per cent of victims of cluster bombs are children, often injured or killed long after direct hostilities end.
This is a huge worry for James Denselow, Head of Conflict and Humanitarian team at Save the Children UK, who tells the Mirror that teams in Cambodia, where the war ended nearly 50 years ago, are still treating children to this day that lose limbs from exposure to unexploded ordinance, including cluster munitions.
"They trigger these weapons because they don't know what they are. There's something particularly insidious about the size of the bomblets as well because it's not like coming across a 1000-pound bomb. These are very small and to an untrained eye, they are just tiny shiny objects", James explains.
Dr Walid said children were still admitted to his hospital with injuries after they "across them and attempt to open them, believing they contain toys, money, or food."
He said most of the time the injuries were in the hands or face if they reached out to grab the bombs.
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"One patient's eyes were shredded to pieces and he was screaming for his mother saying: 'Mother, do not let me in the dark, please turn on the lamp.'"
Both Russia and Ukraine have been using cluster munitions since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, and the US previously criticised Russia's extensive use of the weapon.
James cautions that the bombs will be being used in Ukraine "by a military actor against another military actor, unlike in Syria where there was indiscriminate use and targeting of civilian populations".
Commons Defence Committee chairman Tobias Ellwood urged the US to "reconsider". The Tory MP tweeted: "This is the wrong call and will alienate international goodwill. Their use leaves deadly unexploded ordnance over the battlefield, killing & injuring civilians."
And Labour's Rachel Reeves told Sky News that she wouldn't be able to endorse "the issue of cluster bombs". But Dr Yuriy Sak, adviser to Ukraine's defence minister said: "It is an important move" and insisted the weapons would not be used in urban areas.
Dr Walid understands the complications with the decision, having lived through decades of war. "I believe that you, me, and any good-hearted person do not desire the deaths of innocent civilians. But if it becomes necessary to use these weapons to halt the advance of the monster Putin, then there may be no other option."
In the first year following the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, the amount of Ukrainian land contaminated with explosive ordnances increased tenfold.
James feared for the cloud of death under which thousands of Ukrainians will remain trapped once the weapons are littered on the battlefield.