date:2016-03-15

  • Yemen: US Bombs Used in Deadliest Market Strike | Human Rights Watch
    https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/07/yemen-us-bombs-used-deadliest-market-strike

    Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrikes using United States-supplied bombs killed at least 97 civilians, including 25 children, in northwestern Yemen on March 15, 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. The two strikes, on a crowded market in the village of Mastaba that may have also killed about 10 Houthi fighters, caused indiscriminate or foreseeably disproportionate loss of civilian life, in violation of the laws of war. Such unlawful attacks when carried out deliberately or recklessly are war crimes.

    Human Rights Watch conducted on-site investigations on March 28, and found remnants at the market of a GBU-31 satellite-guided bomb, which consists of a US-supplied MK-84 2,000-pound bomb mated with a JDAM satellite guidance kit, also US-supplied. A team of journalists from ITV, a British news channel, visited the site on March 26, and found remnants of an MK-84 bomb paired with a Paveway laser guidance kit. Human Rights Watch reviewed the journalists’ photographs and footage of these fragments.

    • Ces petits bijoux, pilotés par GPS ("satellite guided") ont une précision (erreur circulaire probable) de 13 mètres (30 mètres en mode dégradé quand le signal GPS n’est pas disponible).

      Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) GBU-31 - Smart Weapons
      http://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/jdam.htm

      Once released, the bomb’s INS/GPS will take over and guide the bomb to its target regardless of weather. Guidance is accomplished via the tight coupling of an accurate Global Positioning System (GPS) with a 3-axis Inertial Navigation System (INS). The Guidance Control Unit (GCU) provides accurate guidance in both GPS-aided INS modes of operation (13 meter (m) Circular Error Probable (CEP)) and INS-only modes of operation (30 m CEP). INS only is defined as GPS quality hand-off from the aircraft with GPS unavailable to the weapon (e.g. GPS jammed). In the event JDAM is unable to receive GPS signals after launch for any reason, jamming or otherwise, the INS will provide rate and acceleration measurements which the weapon software will develop into a navigation solution. The Guidance Control Unit provides accurate guidance in both GPS-aided INS modes of operation and INS-only modes of operation. This inherent JDAM capability will counter the threat from near-term technological advances in GPS jamming.

  • Qalandiya resident succumbs to wounds sustained in army raid
    March 15, 2016 2:59 P.M. (Updated: March 15, 2016 5:40 P.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770710

    RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — A Palestinian man from Qalandiya refugee camp on Tuesday succumbed to wounds he sustained two weeks earlier during a ferocious Israeli raid into the camp that left another Palestinian dead and at least 11 others wounded.

    The family of 24-year-old Nahid Fawzi Imteir told Ma’an he had passed away in Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem.

    Imteir was shot and fatally wounded on March 1 when large numbers of Israeli forces stormed the refugee camp near Ramallah in order to extract two soldiers.

    The Israeli army did not explain why the two soldiers entered the camp, although Israeli media reports suggested they entered accidentally after getting lost.

    The two fled on foot when their vehicle was set ablaze by Molotov cocktails, prompting Israeli troops to flood the camp searching for them.

    Locals said that Palestinian gunmen held the two soldiers for three hours before an Israeli military helicopter evacuated them, although the Israeli army made no mention of gunmen.

    During the ensuing clashes, Israelis soldiers shot and killed 22-year-old Iyad Omar Sajadiyya, while Imteir was one of at least 12 other Palestinians left wounded. Four were hit with live fire, six with rubber-coated steel bullets, and two with high-velocity tear gas canisters.

    #Palestine_assassinée