Khadafy using heavy weapons on civilians

By their nature, neither of these so-called indiscriminate weapons, which strike large areas with a dense succession of high-explosive munitions, can be fired precisely. When fired into populated areas, they place civilians at grave risk.

The dangers were evident beside one of the impact craters yesterday, where eight people were killed while standing in a bread line.

The use of such weapons could add urgency to the arguments by Britain and France that the alliance needs to step up attacks on the Khadafy forces to better fulfill the UN mandate to protect civilians.

It could also apply conflicting pressures on the United States. President Obama has spoken strongly about how US air power helped avert a humanitarian crisis in Libya but also insisted on pulling back that air power and ceding control of the campaign to NATO earlier this month, a handoff that seemed to embolden the Khadafy forces.

The United States has used cluster munitions in battlefield situations in Afghanistan and Iraq and in a strike on suspected militants in Yemen in 2009.

When asked about the munitions at a news conference in Berlin, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was “not aware’’ of the specific use of cluster or other indiscriminate weapons in Misurata, but she said, “I’m not surprised by anything that Colonel Khadafy and his forces do.’’

She added: “That is worrying information. And it is one of the reasons the fight in Misurata is so difficult, because it’s at close quarters, it’s in amongst urban areas and it poses a lot of challenges to both NATO and to the opposition.’’

The cluster munitions were visible late Thursday night, in what appeared to be at least three 120-millimeter mortar rounds that burst over the city, scattering high-explosive bomblets. The same munitions were fired yesterday, amid a fierce barrage from Khadafy’s forces.

Remnants of expended shells, examined and photographed by The New York Times, show the rounds to be MAT-120 cargo mortar projectiles, each of which carries and distributes 21 submunitions designed to penetrate light armor and kill people.

Components from the 120-millimeter rounds, according to their markings, were manufactured in Spain in 2007 — one year before Spain signed the international Convention on Cluster Munitions and pledged to destroy its stocks. Libya, like the United States, is not a signatory to the convention. The Spanish Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.

The fin of one round, which damaged a city ambulance Wednesday, bore the clear factory markings of the Spanish manufacturer, Instalaza.

Human Rights Watch, the New York based advocacy group, verified the use of the cluster munitions as well, and it called on the Khadafy government to stop using them.

“It’s unconscionable that Libya is using these indiscriminate weapons, especially in civilian populated areas,’’ said Steve Goose, director of Human Rights Watch’s arms division. “Cluster munitions are inaccurate and unreliable weapons that pose unacceptable dangers to civilians.’’

The cluster munitions are not the only indiscriminate heavy weapons system to imperil the city’s neighborhoods. The Qasr Ahmed residential district near the port was struck Thursday by multiple rockets, known as Grads, which landed in a dense pattern on houses and streets. One rocket shattered the wall beside a mosque.

The Grad is an area weapons system designed in the Soviet Union to blanket a battlefield with multiple and virtually simultaneous rocket blasts. The rockets were readily identified by their twisted fragments and remains, some of which bore markings indicating they had been manufactured during the Cold War.

The rockets, slightly more than nine feet long and packed with a high-explosive charge, are fired from truck-mounted launchers that hold 40 rocket tubes. Each truck is, essentially, a mobile system that can launch its own barrage 12 miles or more.

One of the Grad rockets alone killed eight civilians, according to survivors and witnesses, who then showed two journalists eight hastily dug graves in a public park nearby, where relatives prayed over the dead. The bodies were buried beside two children’s swing sets. Each grave was dated: April 14, 2011.

Many others were killed in the strike, according to medical officials, including 11 people whose remains are in a city morgue, and others who residents said were buried in family cemeteries Thursday.

Taken together, the attacks of Thursday and the evidence left behind point to a campaign by Khadafy’s forces against Misurata that relies in part on weapons that pose very high risks to the lives of the civilians. They support the rebels’ frequent contentions that in the lopsided fight for Libya, Khadafy’s forces have taken aim at civilians or, at a minimum, taken few measures to avoid endangering them.

The Grad barrage Thursday, for example, struck an area without any visible military infrastructure or signs of military activity, beyond a roadblock with a lone rebel holding an aged rifle. One rocket landed beside a bakery. Several struck homes. One exploded near a mosque.

The graves of the dead also bore information that suggested noncombatants were killed. One victim’s tombstone listed him as 9 years old. Another was for a 75-year-old man.