Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Sunday reported evidence [press release] that cluster bombs were dropped on at least two towns in Libya. HRW said they have not yet determined who dropped the bombs. The Libyan Air Force recently bombed the two towns, but it has denied using banned cluster bombs. Cluster munitions are a form of air-drop explosives that release smaller submunitions when detonated. Because the bombs cover a wide area, they pose major risks to civilians. The bombing sites were discovered over the past two months, one being found in Bin Jawad in February and the other in Sirte in March. The good condition of the paint on the bomb casings and lack of extensive weathering indicated that the remnants had not been exposed to the environment for very long and that the bombs were dropped recently.

Libya remains politically unstable nearly four years after the 2011 uprising [JURIST backgrounder] and subsequent civil war that deposed Muammar Gaddafi. Much of the escalating violence in Libya is attributable to the Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The group has caused increasing international alarm over its human rights abuses [JURIST report] since its insurgence into Syria and Iraq in 2013. Earlier this month the head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) [official website] warned the UN Security Council [official website] that without intervention from the international community and UN, Libya is likely to become unstable [JURIST report] in the wake of repeated terrorist attacks. In February the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned [JURIST report] the group’s beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya. Also in February HRW released a report [text, PDF] detailing the violent attacks on Libyan journalists [JURIST report] by various armed groups over the past two years.