Expert Analysis Points to Qiam or Khorramshahr Missiles

Based on imagery and video footage from the strike sites, missile expert Fabian Hinz, who has studied Iran’s ballistic arsenal extensively, believes that either the Qiam or the Khorramshahr missile was used. The Khorramshahr, in particular, is capable of carrying up to 80 individual submunitions.

What Are Cluster Munitions?

Cluster munitions are weapons designed to disperse smaller bomblets over a wide area, often causing severe and indiscriminate harm to civilians. They are especially dangerous because many bomblets fail to explode on impact, posing long-term risks to anyone who encounters them later.

2008 Convention Bans Such Weapons — But Not Universally

The Convention on Cluster Munitions, adopted in 2008 by more than 100 countries, bans the use, production, and stockpiling of cluster bombs. It specifically prohibits warheads containing ten or more submunitions weighing under four kilograms each. However, major military powers — including Iran, Israel, the U.S., Russia, China, and India — have not signed the treaty.

Precedents and Global Concern

Israel itself used cluster munitions during the 2006 Lebanon war, and both Russia and Ukraine have reportedly used them in the ongoing conflict that began in 2022. Experts and human rights advocates fear that Iran’s suspected use of such weapons could set a new and dangerous precedent in the region.

Cluster munitions, first used by the German Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War, have long been controversial. Cluster munitions cannot distinguish between soldiers and civilians because they spread their submunitions over a wide area and leave behind unexploded submunitions that endanger civilians, like land mines, for months or years to come.