Happy Cluster Year!

Five wounded in cluster bomb explosions in southern Lebanon

By The Associated Press

"Cluster bombs wounded five people, including two children, in southern Lebanon during the past two days, said hospital and security officials Monday.

Shadi Fuad Mahdi, 12, and Ahmed Hassan Makki, 13, were playing outside their house in the village of Qaaqaiyet al-Jisr, near Nabatiyeh, on Monday when a cluster bomb exploded and wounded them, said a Lebanese security official in Nabatiyeh, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the press.

It was not disclosed whether one of the boys stepped on the bomb or they were playing with it. They were both admitted to hospital.

In the southern port city of Tyre, the owner of Najem Hospital, Dr. Jawad Najem, said three men whom he did not name were being treated for wounds received from a cluster bomb explosion on Sunday. He did not say what caused
the bomb to detonate.

At least 28 people have died in cluster bomb and land mine explosions in Lebanon since Israel's war with Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas ended in a cease-fire on August 14.

Last week, a Hezbollah fighter was killed in a cluster bomb explosion in south Lebanon, and earlier this month two Lebanese soldiers were killed by a land mine while they were trying to defuse ordnance left behind by Israeli troops.

The United Nations and human rights groups have accused Israel of laying mines and dropping as many as 4 million cluster bombs on Lebanon during the summer's war.

UN ordnance clearing experts have said that up to 1 million cluster bombs failed to explode and continue to threaten civilians.

Lebanon's south has long been riddled with land mines, laid by retreating Israeli soldiers who pulled out of the region in 2000 after an 18-year occupation. Hezbollah has also planted mines to ward off Israeli forces."