Hi all, HRW's Gaza report is attached (source:
http://www.hrw.org/node/84080) it has a bit more detail about the use
of drone-launched anti-personnel missiles with a fragmentation sleeve
composed of 3mm tungsten cubes. These are not DIME munitions. It also
has quite a lot of background on drones in general.

DIME uses a tungsten powder mixed with the explosive fill to create a
very focused localised blast. These fragmentation sleeves are added
to Spike missiles to turn them from an anti-material weapon into an
anti-personnel weapon. Nevertheless the sleeves still operate on a
similar principle, as the dense tungsten cubes rapidly lose their
momentum and only affect a diameter of app. 20m. DIME munitions are
thought to be more focused still.

Given what we know about the carcinogenicity of embedded tungsten
fragments in rats, we should call for survivors with embedded
tungsten fragments to be monitored.

I will update the two previous statements on Gaza to reaffirm that we
have no evidence to suggest that DU was used and that previous
suspicions of DIME were due to these fragmentation sleeves.

Doug


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