LONDON: A US cruise missile carrying cluster bombs was used in an attack in Yemen that killed 55 people, most of them civilians, Amnesty International has said.

The London-based rights group released photographs yesterday that it said showed the remains of a US-made Tomahawk missile and unexploded cluster bombs that were apparently used in the attack on December 17 on the rural community of Al-Maajala in Yemen's southern Abyan province.

A tell-tale fragment . . . Amnesty says it is an unexploded cluster bomblet from a Tomahawk missile. Credit:AP/Amnesty International

''Amnesty International is gravely concerned by evidence that cluster munitions appear to have been used in Yemen,'' said Mike Lewis, the group's arms control researcher. ''Cluster munitions have indiscriminate effects and unexploded bomblets threaten lives and livelihoods for years afterwards.''

Philip Luther, deputy director of the group's Middle East and North Africa program, said: ''A military strike of this kind against alleged militants without an attempt to detain them is at the very least unlawful.''