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Theaerial bombing of cities is an optional element ofstrategic bombing, which became widespread inwarfare duringWorld War I. The bombing of cities grew to a vast scale inWorld War II and is still practiced today. The development of aerial bombardment marked an increased capacity ofarmed forces to deliverordnance from the air againstcombatants,military bases, andfactories, with a greatly reduced risk to its ground forces. The killing ofcivilians andnon-combatants in bombed cities has variously been a deliberate goal of strategic bombing, or unavoidablecollateral damage resulting from intent and technology. A number of multilateral efforts have been made to restrict the use of aerial bombardment so as to protect non-combatants[2] and other civilians.
Incendiary kites were first used in warfare by the Chinese.[3][4] During theSong dynasty theFire Crow, a kite carrying incendiary powder, a fuse, and a burning stick of incense was developed as a weapon.[5]Walter de Milemete's 1326De nobilitatibus, sapientiis, et prudentiis regum treatise depicts a group of knights flying kites laden with a black-powder filled firebomb over the wall of city.[6] In the 17th century, the forces of Thai kingPhetracha tied gunpowder barrels to kites used for airborne assault.[4]
In 1849, Austrian forces besieging Venice during theFirst Italian War of Independence launched some 200incendiary balloons, each carrying a 24- to 30-pound bomb that was to be dropped from the balloon with a time fuse over the besieged city. The balloons were launched from land and from the Austrian navy shipSMSVulcano that acted as aballoon carrier, though the attack ended in failure as winds blew the balloons away, none reaching their intended target.[7][8]
The first ever air raid was conducted during theItalo-Turkish War by Italian forces against the Ottoman province of Libya on November 1, 1911. Giulio Gavotti dropped 1.5 kg of bombs onAin Zara, a village 8 km west of the capitalTripoli.[9]
Adrianople (presentlyEdirne) was bombed byBulgaria in 1912 in theFirst Balkan War.[10] Historically, it was the firstbombardment of a city from a heavier-than-air aircraft.[11]In the morning of 29 October 1912 at 9:30 a.m. the plane Albatros F-3 took off from an airfield near the village of Mustafa Pasha – present daySvilengrad, Bulgaria. The pilot was captain Radul Mikov with spotter and bombardier Prodan Tarakchiev. The airfield was specially created to carry out the take off and landing. According to the report weather conditions were perfect. The flight lasted for 1 hour and 20 minutes and the altitude was 500m. During the flight the crew flew over the city ofEdirne, discovered hidden Ottoman forces in the nearby villages and flew towards to city railroad station, near the village ofKaraagach. The plane was equipped with two bombs, which were released at 10:00 am over the station. The crew landed successfully at the airfield with 4 holes on the hull.A number of journalists and militaryattachés attended the site.
In May 1914, during therevolution of 1910–17, GeneralVenustiano Carranza, later president, ordered abiplane to bomb Neveria Hill adjacent to the downtown area ofMazatlán in order to take the city. The bomb landed not on target but in a city street and in the process killed four civilians, including a French diplomat, and wounded several others.[12]
The first civilian target to be bombed from the air was the Belgian city ofAntwerp. This city, at that moment theNational Redoubt of Belgium, was bombed during the night of 24–25 August 1914. Instead of targeting the surrounding fortresses, the Zeppelin LZ 25's intention was to bomb the clearly distinguishable historical centre of the city. The zeppelin dropped approximately ten bombs, killing ten people and injuring forty.The BritishRoyal Naval Air Service (RNAS) undertook the firstEntente strategic bombing missions on 22 September 1914 and 8 October, when it bombed the Zeppelin bases inCologne andDüsseldorf. The aeroplanes carried twenty-pound bombs, and at least one airship was destroyed.[13][14] On the night of 19 January 1915, twoImperial German NavyZeppelins,L 3 andL 4, carried out the first air raid on England, dropping twenty-four 50 kg high-explosive bombs and eleven 28 kgincendiary bombs on the English coastal towns ofGreat Yarmouth,Sheringham,King's Lynn, and the surrounding villages.[15][16] In all, four people were killed, 16 were injured, and monetary damage was estimated at £7,740.[17]
London was bombed for the first time on 30 May 1915. In July 1916, the German government allowed directed raids against urban centers, sparking 23airship raids in 1916 in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691. Gradually, British air defenses improved, and the Germans also introduced large bomber aircraft for bombing Britain. In 1917 and 1918, there were only eleven Zeppelin raids against England, and the final raid occurred on 5 August 1918, which resulted in the death of KKPeter Strasser, commander of the German Naval Airship Department. By the end of the war, 51 raids had been undertaken, in which 5,806 bombs were dropped, killing 557 people and injuring 1,358.[18][19] In the course of the Zeppelin raids the Germans lost more than half their airships and 40% of their crew. It has been argued that the raids were effective far beyond material damage inflicted, in diverting and hampering wartime production, and diverting twelve squadrons and over 10,000 men to air defenses.[19]The British developed anIndependent Force of long-range bombers that could bomb Berlin, but the war ended before these raids began.
After the war, bombers' increasing sophistication led to the general belief that aerial bombing would both destroy cities and be impossible to stop; asStanley Baldwin stated in a 1932 speech, "The bomber will always get through".
After World War I, there were protests in Iraq against continued British rule. Many Iraqis across a wide spectrum of opinion opposed the British Mandate for Iraq. TheIraqi revolt against the British began, with peaceful demonstrations in May 1920. Initial demands were rejected by the British administration, and fighting broke out in June 1920. This was suppressed, with many deaths, and at very high costs to the Empire. A policy of 'aerial policing', an invention of Winston Churchill's was brought in. This amounted to aerial bombing of rebelling tribesmen, followed up by pacification by ground troops. This continued up to the mid 1920s.[20] The aerial campaign includedSir Arthur Harris, who commanded aVickers Vernon squadron engaged in the bombing and strafing of revolting tribesmen.[21] Harris once remarked that "the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand."[22]
Following the end of World War I, the British stepped up their efforts in their war against theDervish movement, their sultanDiiriye Guure and emir, the so-called "Mad Mullah", whom they had been fighting for the control the area formerly known asBritish Somaliland. However, they had been unable to defeat the Dervish movement for nearly 25 years. In January 1920, the British launched a combined aerial and land attack against theDhulbahante garesas, bombardingTaleeh, the capital of the revolt.[23] TheSomaliland Campaign has been described as one of the bloodiest and longest-running conflicts in the history ofsub-Saharan Africa and the Somali forces are noted for concurrently repelling the invading British, Italian and Abyssinian forces for a period of 25 years.[24]
In the United States during theTulsa race massacre of May 31 – June 1, 1921, private aircraft flown by white men dropped kerosene bombs on the Greenwood neighborhood.[25][26]
During theCristero War inMexico in 1929,Irish pilot and mercenaryPatrick Murphy mistakenly dropped several improvised "suitcase bombs" on the border town ofNaco, Arizona, while bombing government forces in the adjacent town ofNaco, Sonora, for the Cristero revolutionaries. The bombing, which caused damage to many buildings and injured several bystanders on the American side of the international border, became the first aerial bombardment of theContinental United States by a foreign power in American history.[27][28]
TheItalians used aircraft against theEthiopian cities in theSecond Italo-Abyssinian War. For example, in February 1936, the Italian invasion forces in the south prepared for a major thrust towards the city ofHarar. On 22 March, theRegia Aeronautica bombed Harar andJijiga as a prelude. Both cities were reduced to ruins even though Harar had been declared an "open city".[29]
During theSpanish Civil War, the Nationalists underFrancisco Franco made extensive use of aerial bombing on civilian targets.Nazi Germany gave aircraft to Franco to support the overthrow of theSpanish Republican government. The first major example of this came in November 1936, when German and Spanish aircraft bombed Republican-heldMadrid; this bombardment was sustained throughout theSiege of Madrid.[30]Barcelona andValencia were also targeted in this way.[31] On 26 April 1937, the GermanLuftwaffe (Condor Legion)bombed the Spanish city of Guernica carrying out the most high-profile aerial attack of the war. This act caused worldwide revulsion and was the subject ofa famous painting byPicasso,[32] but by the standards of bombings during World War II, casualties were fairly minor (estimates ranging from 500 to 1,500).[33][34]
Shortly after, the front-page headlines of theDiario de Almería, dated June 3, 1937, referred to the press in London and Paris carrying the news of the "criminal bombardment ofAlmería by German planes".[35]
Barcelona was bombarded for three days beginning on 16 March 1938, at the height of theSpanish Civil War. Under the command of the Italian dictatorBenito Mussolini, Italian aircraft stationed on the island ofMajorca attacked 13 times dropping 44 tons of bombs, aimed at the civil population.[36] The medievalCathedral of Barcelona suffered bomb damage and more than one thousand people died, including many children. The number of people injured is estimated to be in the thousands.[37] Many others Spanish towns and cities were bombed by the GermanLegion Condor and the ItalianAviazione Legionaria among themJaen,Durango,Granollers andAlicante.
TheSpanish Republican government also used aerial bombings, but not as extensively, as they did not have as many planes available. Cities such asValladolid,Granada,Sevilla,Zaragoza orBurgos were bombarded, killing some people. The biggest aerial attack against civil population was inCabra, a small town away from the war front, and with no strategic value, that was bombed due to an error. 109 people were killed and more than 200 wounded.[38][39] Planes coming from Barcelona launched three bombs against theCathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar on August 3, 1936. The bombs failed to detonate, but did damage one of the cupolas painted byGoya. The fact was considered a miracle, as, if the bombs had exploded, the eastern half of the Cathedral would have been completely destroyed.[40]
During theManchurian Incident of 1931, the Japanese widely used airplanes to indiscriminately bomb key targets and cities, such asMukden. After theMarco Polo Bridge Incident, theImperial Japanese Army Air Service, in conjunction with theImperial Japanese Navy Air Service, began relentlessly bombingShanghai,Beijing (Peking),Tianjin (Tientsin) and several cities on the Chinese coast from the beginning of theSecond Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
The bombing campaigns on Nanjing and Canton which started in September 1937 evoked protests from the Western powers culminating in a resolution by the Far Eastern Advisory Committee of theLeague of Nations. An example of the many expressions of indignation came from Lord Cranborne, the British Under-Secretary of State For Foreign Affairs:
Words cannot express the feelings of profound horror with which the news of these raids had been received by the whole civilized world. They are often directed against places far from the actual area of hostilities. The military objective, where it exists, seems to take a completely second place. The main object seems to be to inspire terror by the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians ...[41]
At the beginning of World War II, bombing of cities prior to invasion was an integral part ofNazi Germany'sstrategy. In the first stages of war, the Germans carried out many bombings of towns and cities in Poland (1939), including the capitalWarsaw (also bombed in 1944), withWieluń beingthe first city destroyed by 75%.[42] The Soviet Union also attemptedstrategic bombing against Poland and Finland,bombing Helsinki.[43]
Rotterdam wasbombed by Germany at 14 May 1940. The city had already surrendered an hour earlier and the attack was called off, but this did not reach the already flying bombers.[44][45]
Germany began aerial bombing of British cities immediately after the British declaration of war on Germany in September 1939, while the first British bombing raids against Germany were on the night of 15/16 May 1940, with 78 bombers against oil targets, 9 against steelworks and 9 against marshalling yards, all military and industrial targets in the German hinterland.[46] Oil remained the main British objective until the summer of 1941, although German cities and towns were regularly bombed from May 1940. Previous raids had been carried out by the RAF, but when targets were not found, the bombers returned without making an attack.
After theFall of France, the Luftwaffe redirected its full attention to the United Kingdom. The scale of the attack increased greatly in July 1940, with 258 civilians killed, and again in August with 1,075 dead.[47] During the night of 25 August, British bombers raided targets in and around Greater Berlin for the first time, in response to the misdirected bombing of Oxford Street and the West End by the Luftwaffe while it was bombing the London docks.[48] On 4 September 1940 Hitler, frustrated by the RAF's superiority over the Luftwaffe and enraged by its bombing of German cities, decided to retaliate by bombing London and other cities in the UK.[49] On 7 September the Luftwaffe began massed attacks on London. The bombing campaign was known in the UK as "the Blitz", and ran from September 1940 through to May 1941. TheCoventry Blitz and theBelfast Blitz were two of the heaviest of all bombings by the Luftwaffe, killing 568–1,000 civilians of Coventry, killing over 1,100 civilians inBelfast, and destroying much of both city centres.
British bombing policy evolved during the war. In the beginning, the RAF was forbidden to attack urban targets in Germany due to the risk of accidental civilian casualties.[50] Following a German attack on military targets in theOrkney Islands on 16 March 1940 that killed a civilian, the RAF mounted an attack on the seaplane base on the island ofSylt.[51] The RAF began attacking transport targets west of the Rhine on the night of 10 May following the German invasion of the Low Countries, and military targets in the rest of Germany after the bombing of Rotterdam.[52] On 9 September 1940 RAF crews were instructed that due to the "indiscriminate" nature of German bombing, if they failed to find their assigned targets they were to attacktargets of opportunity rather than bring their bombs home.[53] On the 15/16 December the RAF carried out its first area bombing attack (destroying 45% of the city ofMannheim), officially in response to the raid on Coventry.[54][55]
In 1942, the goals of the British attacks were defined: the primary goal was the so-called "morale bombing", to weaken the will of the civil population to resist. Following this directive intensive bombing of highly populated city centers andworking class quarters started. On 30 May 1942, theRAF Bomber Command launched the first "1,000 bomber raid" when 1,046 aircraftbombed Cologne in Operation Millennium, dropping over 2,000 tons of high explosive and incendiaries on the medieval town and burning it from end to end.[56][57] 411 civilians and 85 combatants were killed, more than 130,000 had to leave the city.[58]
Two further 1,000 bomber raids were executed overEssen andBremen, but to less effect than the destruction at Cologne. The effects of the massive raids using a combination ofblockbuster bombs and incendiaries createdfirestorms in some cities.[59] The most extreme examples were caused by thebombing of Hamburg in Operation Gomorrah (45,000 dead),[60][61] and the bombings ofKassel (10,000 dead),[62][63][64]Darmstadt (12,500 dead),[64]Pforzheim (21,200 dead),[65]Swinemuende (23,000 dead),[66][67] andDresden (25,000 dead[68][69]).
The Allies also bombed urban areas in the other countries, including occupied France (Caen[70]) and the major industrial cities of northern Italy, likeMilan andTurin.[71] Some cities were bombed at the different times by the Luftwaffe and the Allies,for example Belgrade inYugoslavia[72][self-published source?][73] andBucharest inRomania.[74]
The Luftwaffe also bombed cities in the Soviet Union, destroyingStalingrad in a massive air raid at the start of theBattle of Stalingrad[75] and bombingLeningrad during thesiege of the city of 1941–1943.[76] The Soviet bombing of the German cities was limited in comparison with the RAF bombing (destruction caused by the Soviet army was mainly due to the landartillery). TheSoviet Air Force also bombedBudapest in Hungary.[77]
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In theAsiatic-Pacific Theater, Japan continued to bomb Chinese cities and expanded its air operations towards others in Asia such asSingapore,Rangoon, andMandalay. In the first few months of the war with the Western Powers, Japan projected its airpower on settlements as distant asHonolulu,Darwin, andUnalaska.
The capture of theMariana Islands in 1944 enabled theUnited States Army Air Forces to reach the Japanese home islands using theBoeing B-29 Superfortress. The U.S.firebombed Tokyo on the night of March 9–10, 1945, and killed more than 100,000 people in the deadliest conventional bombing in history, known asOperation Meetinghouse.[78] In a few hours, 100,000 people who were in Tokyo including civilians died either by the bombing or theconflagration that followed the bombing by 325 B-29's night attacks. The bombing was meant to burn wooden buildings and indeed the bombing caused fire that created a 50 m/s wind that is comparable to tornadoes. A total of 381,300 bombs amounting to 1783 tons, were used in the bombing.
After the successfulOperation Meetinghouse raid, the USAAF went on to firebomb other Japanese cities in effort to pulverize the Japanese war industry andshatter Japanese civilian morale. From March to August 1945, the U.S. firebombing of 67 Japanese cities had killed 350,000 civilians. In addition, theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed 120,000 people.[79]
During theKorean War of 1950–1953, U.S.-ledUNair forces heavily bombed the cities in North Korea and the North-occupiedSouth Korea, including their respective capital cities.[80] There were also plans to use nuclear weapons againstNorth Korea and thePeople's Republic of China.[81]
From 1965 to 1968, during theVietnam War, theUnited States Air Force conducted an aerial campaign known asOperation Rolling Thunder. The campaign began with interdiction of supply lines in rural areas of southern North Vietnam but incrementally spread northward throughout the country.[82] In 1966, restrictions against bombing the capital city ofHanoi and the country's largest port,Haiphong, were lifted, and they were bombed by the USAF andNavy.[83] The bombing of the city centers continued to be prohibited.[84] However, theSouth Vietnamese cities seized by the communists were bombed, including the former capital ofHuế during the 1968Tet Offensive.[83]
TheRepublic of Vietnam Air Force bombed contested cities in South Vietnam in 1968, 1972 and 1975, while theVietnam People's Air Force attacked Southern cities (including the capital city ofSaigon) in 1975.[citation needed]
Israeli cities were bombed byEgyptian,Syrian andJordanian aircraft during the1948 Arab-Israeli war and theSix-Day War. The bombing included attacks on some of Israel's largest cities, such asTel Aviv,Jerusalem andHaifa.[86] TheLebanese capital ofBeirut was attacked by theIsraeli aircraft during theSiege of Beirut in 1982,[87][88] and during the2006 Lebanon War (using guided munitions).[89][90][91] Israel also conducted air strikes targetingPalestinian targets during theSecond Intifada, including againstHamas inGaza.[92][93]
In March 1979, in response to anuprising, theKhalq-control army ofDemocratic Republic of Afghanistancarpet-bombed theAfghanistan's third-largest city ofHerat, causing massive destruction[94] and some 5,000 to 25,000 deaths.[95] Herat was also repeatedly bombed during the followingSoviet involvement in theAfghan civil war.
Following theSeptember 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S.-led coalition attacked the urban targets in Afghanistan using mainlyprecision-guided munitions (or "smart bombs"). The United States government maintains that it has a policy of striking only significant combatant targets while doing all possible to avoid what it terms "collateral damage" to civilians and non-combatants during theU.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
Saddam Hussein'sIraq attacked civilian targets inIranian cities in theWar of the Cities during theIran–Iraq War in the 1980s, with Iranians retaliating in kind (both sides soon switched toballistic missile attacks).[96][97] Iraqi aircraft also bombed the IraqiKurdistan city ofHalabja in 1988 with conventional andchemical weapons in 1988, killing more than 5,000 people in thelargest aerial poison gas attack in history.
In 1988Somali Air Force aircraft conducted intense aerial bombardment of majorIsaaq cities targeting civilianIsaaqs during its campaign againstSomali National Movement in the north of the country. Civilians were also strafed bySomali Air Force aircraft as they were fleeing the aerial bombardment.[99] The artillery shelling and aerial bombardment caused the deaths of estimated 50,000–200,000 Isaaq civilians, as well as the complete destruction of Somalia's second and third largest cities.[100] It also caused up to 500,000[101][102] Somalis (primarily of the Isaaq clan)[103] to flee and cross the border into Hartasheikh inEthiopia as refugees in what was described as "one of the fastest and largest forced movements of people recorded in Africa",[101] and resulted in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp then (1988),[104] with another 400,000 being internally displaced.[105][106][107] The scale of destruction led to Hargeisa being known as the 'Dresden of Africa'.[101]
TheIraqi Air Force attackedKuwait City in 1990 and bombed their own cities during the1991 uprisings in Iraq, targeting civilians with the use of bomb-carryinghelicopters (use of airplanes wasbanned by the Coalition as part of the ceasefire agreement that ended hostilities of theGulf War but not the war itself).
UN-led coalition aircraft attacked targets in Iraqi cities, including in the capitalBaghdad and the largest southern city ofBasra duringOperation Desert Storm in 1991.[108][109]
On 13 February 1991, aUnited States Air Force (USAF) warplane fired twolaser-guided missiles at anair raid shelter in theAl-A'amiriya neighborhood of Baghdad,killing at least 408 civilians sheltering there. U.S. officials subsequently claimed that the shelter also served as a communications center for the Iraqi military.BBC correspondentJeremy Bowen, who was one of the first television reporters on the scene, was given access to the shelter and claimed that he did not find any evidence of it being used by the Iraqi military.[110] His claims were later contradicted by Iraqi generalWafiq al-Samarrai, who claimed that the shelter was used by theIraqi Intelligence Service, and that Saddam Hussein had personally made visits to it.[111] The day after the bombing of the shelter, aRoyal Air Force (RAF) fighter jet fired two laser-guided missiles which were aimed at a bridge inFallujah which was used as part of an Iraqi military supply line. The missiles malfunctioned and struck Fallujah's largest marketplace (which was situated in a residential area), killing between 50 and 150 non-combatants and wounding many more. After news of the mistake became public, an RAF spokesman,Group Captain David Henderson issued a statement noting that the missile had malfunctioned but admitted that the Royal Air Force had made an error.[112][113]
At the beginning of theYugoslav Wars,in Croatia (1991), theYugoslav People's Army (JNA) carried out aerial bombing ofDubrovnik andVukovar.[114]
NATO's aerialbombing of FR Yugoslavia in 1999 included targeted aerial bombing throughoutSerbia, notably of targets inBelgrade,Novi Sad andNiš. In addition to military casualties, there were at least 500civilian casualties. Despite the NATO campaign appearing to violate NATO's charter,[115] theUNSC rebutted the case on March 24 and March 26, 1999.[116] In addition to purely military targets NATO targeted the national power grid (leaving many cities in the dark), water purification plants, oil refineries, fertilizer factories, and a petrochemical plant in Pancevo.[117] The 78-day bombing campaign is assessed as having been an 'economic catastrophe', cutting the Yugoslav economy in half.[117]
Post-Soviet Russia heavily bombed theChechen capital ofGrozny from the air with mostly unguided munitions (includingfuel-air explosives) as well as bombarding it with a massive artillerybarrages (1994–1995, 1996 and 1999–2000), killing thousands of people (some estimates say 27,000 civilians were killed during the1994–1995 siege alone[118]) including civilians during theFirst andSecond Chechen Wars. Although the Russian pilots and soldiers were ordered to attack designated targets only, such as thePresidential Palace, due to their inexperience and lack of training, Russian soldiers and pilots bombed and shelled random targets inside the city. In 2003, the UN still called Grozny the most destroyed city on earth.[119]
In2003 Invasion of Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition aircraft again bombed Iraq, including theShock and Awe campaign of precision bombing[120] of government targets in the city centers. From 2003 to 2011 and 2014 to 2018, coalition aircraft attackedIraqi insurgent targets, including in urban locations likeNajaf,Fallujah,Mosul,Basra, andBaghdad.[121] There are frequent reports of civilian casualties, though it is often hard to distinguish guerrillas and civilians.
SyrianMiG-23s bombed the city ofAleppo on 24 July 2012, the first use of aerial bombing in theSyrian Civil War.[122][123][124] Over the course of the war, the Syrian government has dropped tens of thousands of bombs, mostly unguidedbarrel bombs,[125] on the cities ofAleppo,[126]Damascus,[125]Homs,[127]Hama,[128]Deir ez-Zor,[129]Hasakah,[130]Daraa,[131]Darayya,[132] andAl-Bab.[133][134][135]
Ever since the beginning ofthe invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has carried out airstrikes using missiles and drones, often targeting civilian and energy infrastructure.[2][3][5] By mid-December, Russia had fired more than 1,000 missiles and drones at Ukraine's energy grid.[136] Several waves targeted Kyiv, includingone on 16 May 2023 in which Ukraine said it had intercepted sixKinzhal missiles.[137] Strikes continue into 2025, with the July 8/9 attack launching 728 drones targeting ten out of 23oblasts, including 50 drones and 5 missiles launched intoLutsk.[138]
During theGaza war, Israeli airstrikes damaged or destroyed Palestinianrefugee camps,schools,hospitals, mosques, churches, and othercivilian infrastructure.[139][140] By late April 2024 it was estimated that Israel had dropped over 70,000 tons of bombs over Gaza, surpassing the bombing ofDresden,Hamburg, andLondon combined duringWorld War II.[141][142]
Budapest was attacked by intense Soviet air strikes in 1956 during theHungarian Revolution.[143][144] A year before, on 16 June 1955,Casa Rosada, the Argentine government seat atBuenos Aires, was the target offour waves of fighter-bombers during a military uprising to overthrowJuan Perón. Fourteen-tons of bombs scattered on a wide area, killing hundreds of civilian passers-by[145] as well as 11 soldiers.[146] In 2008, the cities ofTskhinvali andGori were hit by theGeorgian and Russian aircraft during thewar in Georgia.[147]
Air warfare, theoretically, must comply withlaws and customs of war, includinginternational humanitarian law by protecting the victims of the conflict and refraining from attacks onprotected persons.[148]
These restraints on aerial warfare are covered by the general laws of war, because unlike war on land and at sea – which are specifically covered by rules such as the1907 Hague Convention andProtocol I additional to theGeneva Conventions, which contain pertinent restrictions, prohibitions and guidelines – there are no treaties specific to aerial warfare.[148]
To be legal, aerial operations must comply with the principles of humanitarian law:military necessity,distinction, andproportionality:[148] An attack or action must be intended to help in the defeat of the enemy; it must be an attack on alegitimate military objective, and the harm caused to protected civilians or civilian property must be proportional and not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.