Thursday, August 24, 2006

Israel leaves behind gifts for Lebanese children

Israel cluster bombed 170 sites in Lebanon

TYRE, Lebanon * Israel dropped cluster bombs on at least 170 villages and other places in south Lebanon during its 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas, a senior United Nations de-mining official said yesterday.

The bomblets that failed to explode are now a deadly trap for civilians who stayed in the south or who fled and are now returning, some to find their homes or workplaces pounded to rubble by Israeli air strikes and artillery. The devices are known to have killed eight people and wounded at least 25, including several children, since a truce took hold on Aug. 14, said Tekimiti Gilbert, operations chief of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre in Lebanon.

"Up to now there are 170 confirmed cluster bomb strikes in south Lebanon," he said in the southern port of Tyre. Continued.

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