Israel used widely banned cluster munitions in Lebanon, report says
Israel used widely banned cluster munitions in its latest war on Lebanon, The Guardian said in a report, based on photos seen by arms experts.
Cluster munitions are air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapons that release or eject smaller submunitions over a wide area, posing risks to civilians even after attacks as unexploded bomblets can kill or maim civilians and are hard to be located.
They were used in previous Israeli wars on Lebanon, including in 1978, 1982 and 2006, and more than 400 people were killed in Lebanon by unexploded bomblets since 2006.
The huge number of unexploded cluster bombs in Lebanon was a main driving factor for the drafting of the cluster convention in 2008, the British newspaper said, quoting an arms expert as saying that cluster munitions are banned internationally for a reason. "They are inherently indiscriminate and there is no way to employ them lawfully or responsibly, and civilians bear the brunt of the risk as these weapons stay deadly for decades to come," the expert told The Guardian.
Source: Naharnet
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