Russia sends four SU27s to Syria

[A_Van]

2 Eclectic:


1. Definition of the cluster munition (that is banned by some countries):
The definition of a cluster munition under Article 2 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions is “a conventional munition that is designed to disperse or release explosive submunitions each weighing less than 20 kilograms, and includes those explosive submunitions.”
Source: http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/en-gb/cluster-bombs/what-is-a-cluster-bomb.aspx

2. Russian RBK-500-SPBE mentioned here weighs 500 kg and has 15 self-guided sub-munitions, please, see
http://www.airwar.ru/weapon/ab/rbk500.html (these numbers - 500 and 15 - are in the first line of the text in cyrillic)
Thus, this bomb does not fall into the category of the banned metal (500/15 = 33.33 kg). BTW, this was mentioned by someone in the first comment after the article you referred to (https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2015/10/06/mounting-evidence-of-russian-cluster-bomb-use-in-syria/ )

3. But even if it fell (into the cluster category), this would simply mean, IMHO, inadequacy of the above definition. Obviously, using self-guided submunitions aimed exclusively at armored vehicles, would bring no more harm to infantry (or jihadists on the mules in this case) than a couple of machine-guns in "skilled hands" of a tank or IFV crew.