Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: using cluster bombs

Azerbaijan has been accused of using banned cluster bombs in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, including munitions found in civilian areas, and has accused Armenia of using the same weapons, though without providing evidence.

Media and human rights organisations have confirmed the use of Israel-made M095 cluster munitions, which scatter hundreds of bomblets, or submunitions, on residential areas of Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital, which is being targeted by Azeri forces.

The use of the banned weapons was documented as fighting continued on Thursday and international mediators prepared to try to reach a ceasefire agreement in Geneva.

Expectations for short-term peace are low and there are fears that regional powers could be dragged into the conflict, with a Russian-led military alliance that includes Armenia warning it could intervene in the conflict if Armenian sovereignty is threatened.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has made clear he does not consider fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh – ruled by ethnic Armenians but inside Azerbaijan’s territory – to be a trigger for the six-member Collective Security Treaty Organisation’s involvement.

As the deadliest fighting over the region since the 1990s entered its 15th day on Thursday, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of bombing the historic Ghazanchetsots (Holy Saviour) Cathedral.

Baku denied its forces were behind the attack, saying that, unlike Armenia, “the Azerbaijani army does not target historical, cultural, or especially religious, buildings and monuments”.

Rubble was strewn about the floor, pews were knocked over and the interior was covered in dust from the building’s limestone walls that had been hit. A section of its metallic roof had collapsed and fallen to the ground outside.

“There is no military, nothing strategic here, how can you target a church?” one resident, Simeon, said.

Cluster bombs are banned under the convention on cluster munitions (CCM), a treaty signed by more than 100 states, but neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan. The indiscriminate nature of the scattering of the bomblets, some of which can fail to explode on impact, can pose a threat to civilians long after conflicts have ended.

Officials from Azerbaijan deny their forces are using the weapons in Nagorno-Karabakh and have instead alleged that Armenian forces used them in an attack on a pipeline.