August 27, 2006

US Investigates Israeli Use Of Cluster Bombs

Guardian Unlimited
August 26, 2006

The US State Department is investigating whether Israel's use of American-made cluster bombs in Lebanon violated an agreement that the weapons not be used in populated areas, officials said yesterday.

'We've heard the allegations that these munitions were used in Lebanon and we're looking into it,' a state department spokesman said yesterday. Another official confirmed that the sale of cluster bombs was conditional on Israel using them only against military targets in the open, away from civilian areas.

Details of that undertaking - dating back to the first sales of cluster munitions in the 1970s - are classified, but they are reported to include a pledge only to use them against organised armies and clearly defined military targets.

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