#rbk-250

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New Cluster Bomb Videos October 16th Plus Bonus FABs

[Videos for October 15th] Five new videos today, the first from Rastan, Homs, showing children showing off the AO-1 Sch cluster bomblets to the camera

This video from East Bweyda, Homs, shows a cluster bomb canister and AO-1 Sch cluster bomblets that are held up to the camera, showing the factory marking 56 47 74, the third number being the year of manufacture.  As with many of these bomblets they appears to have been manufactured in the 1970s and early 1980s

This video from Isqat, Idlib, shows a cluster bomb canister marked with RBK 250-275 and the bomblet type AO-1 Sch

Next we have two videos showing larger PTAB cluster bomblets, first from Hamouriyah, Damascus

And this video of a cluster bomb with PTAB bomblets from Al Bab, Aleppo, that appears to have crashed into a building without scattering the bomblets first

Thanks to @sherbalkis and @hlk01. One other change in the air war I'd like to briefly highlight is the appearance of FABs.  You may have read about OFAB high explosive fragmentation bombs on my blog, which are very similar, the main difference being the design of the shell, with the OFAB's shell causing greater fragmentation compared to the FAB.  Here's a few examples spotted in recent weeks (thanks to Bjørn H Jespersen of the excellent .processing blog for help with this)

Related Articles Collected Evidence Of Cluster Bombs Used In Syria Evidence Of Cluster Bombs Being Deployed In Syria New Cluster Bomb Evidence Emerges From Syria A Beginner's Guide To Identifying UXO In Syria You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at [email protected]

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Collected Evidence Of Cluster Bombs Used In Syria

On July 10th I identified the first recorded use of cluster bombs in Syria, but since then there's been no evidence of further cluster bomb use, bar unverified reports.  Now new videos have emerged that show a new kind of cluster bomblet and the bomb used to drop them from the town of Abu Kamal

This first video shows a dozen PTAB-2.5m cluster bomblets (identified from this document), which are held up and shown to the camera

These cluster bombs are deployed by a RBK-250 cluster bomb, which can hold 42 of the bomblets, and a video from the same area also shows what appears to be a casing for a one

Update August 29th Another video of what appears to be the same bomb has been posted

It should be noted that PTAB-2.5m cluster bomblets are commonly used as anti-tank bombs.  Bjørn H Jespersen pointed out a great example of those bomblets being loaded into a RBK 250 cluster bomb.  This may not be the only example of a cluster bomb used recently, as this video also catches the remains of a bomb that looks like it could possibly be a larger RBK series cluster bomb

Update August 29th This video has been posted online that appears to show a child that has been given an unexploded cluster muntion from the above bomb so he can be filmed with it.  Needless to say this is incredibly dangerous and irresponsible

Update August 31st HamaEcho has spotted another video of an RBK-250 cluster bomb carrying PTAB-2.5m cluster bomblets (according to the writing on the casing) dropped in the Dier Ez Zor region

Update October 9th This video from Altmanah, Idlib shows a new example of a cluster bomb with AO-1 SCH bomblets, which were first seen in the original sighting of cluster bombs in Syria

Update October 9th I've now come across what appears to be the tail end of a cluster bomb in Taftanaz, Idlib

Thanks to Bjørn H Jespersen for highlighting the original channel this video was posted in which also had this additional video

This video from the same channel apparently shows the above cluster bomb being dropped

Update October 9th Here's a third new cluster bomb sighting from Rif Dimashq, Eastern Bouwayda. Damascus Suburb

Update October 11th It appears another cluster bomb tail has been spotted Ma'arrat al Nouman, Idlib (via @Guardian_Mario)

Update October 11th Another two videos showing a cluster bomb tail and bomblets have been posted from Talmenes, in Ma'arrat al-Numan, Idlib, and appears to be different from the one shown above

Update October 11th Another cluster bomb and bomblets in Idlib, this time in Al Tah, south of Ma'arrat al Nouman

Update October 11th Another from Al Tah, it should be said it's unclear if these bombs are the same, or different bombs

Further videos of cluster bombs used in Syria can be found in this post. Related Articles Evidence Of Cluster Bombs Being Deployed In Syria New Cluster Bomb Evidence Emerges From Syria A Beginner's Guide To Identifying UXO In Syria Human Rights Watch - Syria: Evidence of Cluster Munitions Use by Syrian Forces You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at [email protected]