Saudi Arabia used banned British-made cluster bombs in Yemen atrocities, Defence Secretary admits

SAUDI Arabia did use banned British-made cluster bombs in Yemen, the Defence Secretary was forced to admit yesterday.

Sir Michael Fallon came clean to MPs about the embarrassing disaster, heaping pressure on the government’s backing for Riyadh in the bitter war.

He said a “limited number” of UK supplied cluster munitions had been dropped by Saudi forces.

But he insisted the munitions were made and sold in the 1980s – long before a 2008 convention supposed to outlaw them.

He added: “Saudi Arabia has now confirmed it will not further use BL-755 cluster munitions and I welcome that.”

No.10 was forced to deny Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had been stopped from making the Commons statement – after his outburst about Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

At a summit in Rome he said the behaviour of Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East was a tragedy.

Mr Fallon’s comments came after Arab coalition spokesman Ahmed Asiri said it had “become apparent that there was limited use by the Coalition of the UK-manufactured BL-755 cluster munition in Yemen”.

Because of their extraordinary risk to civilians, cluster bombs were banned in 2008 in an international treaty signed by Britain.

Amnesty International called for a suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

The campaign group’s UK director Kate Allen said: “Over the years, the UK has sold billions and billions of pounds’ worth of weapons - including cluster bombs - to Saudi Arabia, and it’s hardly a surprise they’re turning up in bombed-out villages in Yemen."

“Thousands of Yemeni civilians have already been killed and injured by the Saudi coalition’s reckless and indiscriminate bombing of homes, hospitals, schools and factories.

“It doesn’t require a belated ‘investigation’ within the MoD to tell us what we already knew - that the UK should immediately suspend all further weapons sales to Saudi Arabia that risk fuelling these appalling atrocities in Yemen.”