Cluster bombs were first used in World War II by German and Soviet forces. They were originally designed to attack columns of armoured vehicles.
During the 1970s, the USA used massive numbers of cluster bombs in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. More recently, cluster bombs were used extensively in the Gulf War, Chechnya, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as in Lebanon in 2006 and Georgia in 2008.
Today there are millions of unexploded bomblets scattered across large areas of land in countries around the world. Despite clear evidence of humanitarian harm, many governments are still reluctant to give up cluster munitions.
Since 1965, 39 countries and territories have been affected by the presence of unexploded cluster bombs. It is estimated that between 22 and 132 million submunitions have failed to explode on impact.
At least 440 million submunitions have been dropped since 1965:
1965-1975 Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia: 383 million
2001-2002 Afghanistan: 250,000
1991-2006 Iraq: 50 million 2006 / South Lebanon: 4 million
1999 Kosovo: 290,000
Countries and territories affected by unexploded submunitions since 1965
35 countries and 4 territories:
Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia,
Chad, Colombia, Croatia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Falkland Islands, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos,
Lebanon, Libya, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Montenegro, Mozambique, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Russia
(including Chechnya), Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia.
