Cluster munition deaths in Ukraine pass Syria, fueling rise in a weapon the world has tried to ban

By ABBY SEWELL and OMAR ALBAM
Associated Press

AIN SHEEB, Syria (AP) — More than 300 people were killed by cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022, surpassing Syria as the country with the highest number of deaths from the controversial weapons for the first time in a decade. That’s according to the Cluster Munition Coalition’s annual report. In Syria, civilians still regularly fall victim to the scattered remnants from cluster strike attacks from years before. Often it is children who are maimed or killed when they unknowingly pick up the ordnance. The world has sought to ban cluster weapons, but Syria, Russia, Ukraine and the United States — which has said it will start supplying them to Ukraine — remain holdouts.