TRIPOLI, Libya, April 16 (UPI) -- Rights groups Saturday alleged Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's forces were using indiscriminate cluster bombs to battle rebels.
Human Rights Watch said one of its staff witnessed three mortar-launched cluster bombs explode Friday night over a residential area of Misurata, the BBC said.
If verified, the use of such munitions would contravene the Geneva Conventions mandate that any military avoid the use of weapons that would endanger civilians, The Daily Telegraph said.
A Misurata resident told the Telegraph Friday's barrage of mortar shell shrapnel "was like rain."
The BBC also reported allegations Gadhafi's forces were using the Soviet-designed Grad rocket system that rapidly fires a series of missiles into the western city still under rebel control.
The 2008 international Convention on Cluster Munitions prohibits its 108 signatories from using cluster weapons because of the threat to civilians, but Libya, the United States, Russia and Israel didn't sign it.
The military dictator has defied public calls and mass demonstrations for him to step aside after more than 40 years for democratic reform. The U.N. Security Council authorized NATO to implement a no-fly zone over the country to prevent Gadhafi's military from strafing and bombing rebel positions.
