Israel may have misused cluster bombs in Lebanon, U.S. says
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WASHINGTON: Israel may have misused American-made cluster bombs in civilian areas of Lebanon during its war against Hezbollah last summer, the State Department said Monday.
The department's spokesman, Sean McCormack, said a preliminary report on a U.S. investigation of the issue had been sent to Congress. He declined to provide details of the investigation.
The United Nations said last summer that unexploded cluster bombs — anti- personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area — litter homes, gardens and highways across southern Lebanon.
When Israel buys cluster bombs and other lethal equipment from the United States, it must agree in writing to restrictions on their use.
The report, McCormack said, "is not a final judgment." He declined to speculate on what action might be taken against Israel if Congress determined that a violation had been committed. He also said that U.S. agreements about the use of munitions were classified.
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Under the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, if the government finds that a foreign country violated agreements over how U.S-made weapons were used, the administration must draw up a report and send its findings to Congress.
He said Israeli officials had been cooperative in providing information.
The spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Mark Regev, said Monday that "Israel takes the concerns raised by the U.S. extremely seriously" and had been as "forthcoming and transparent as possible."
The United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center says that it is not illegal to use the cluster bombs against soldiers or enemy fighters, but that the Geneva Conventions bar their use in civilian areas.
Relief organizations and the UN mine office have reported finding evidence that Israel used three types of U.S.-made cluster bombs during the 34-day war with Hezbollah, during which both sides fired rockets into populated areas.
The mine office said in a report that it had found hundreds of bomblets of the types made by the United States among unexploded ordnance recovered in nearly 250 locations in southern Lebanon. Israel also makes its own cluster munitions.
Cluster bombs are typically used against tanks and explode upon impact with steel. In the conflict in Lebanon, the shells were fired into urban and rural areas where Israel thought Hezbollah guerrillas might be hiding. Many did not explode.
Israel said it was forced to hit civilian targets in Lebanon because Hezbollah fighters were using villages as a base for rocket launchers aimed at Israel. At least 850 Lebanese and 157 Israelis died in the fighting.
The Bush administration repeatedly warned Israel to avoid civilian casualties during the war, but it refrained from direct criticism of Israeli tactics.
The United States provides Israel with more than $2 billion in military aid each year. A number of nations are now paying for an effort trying to remove tens of thousands of the unexploded cluster bomblets across southern Lebanon. $@
Boeing gets Israel purchase
The Israeli Air Force will buy "smart" munitions kits from Boeing for an estimated $100 million, Israeli defense officials said Monday, according to The Associated Press in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Post said the planned purchase was for the Joint Direct Attack Munition, a guidance tail kit that converts conventional bombs into satellite- guided weapons. Defense officials said the acquisition was meant to replenish stores used up in the war last summer against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The newspaper said the purchase would not require approval by the U.S. Congress because it was the exercise of a previously approved purchase option.
