'NYT': U.S. Probing Israel's Use of Our Cluster Bombs

By: E&P Staff The New York Times reports Friday, based on interviews with two anonymous officials, that the State Department is investigating whether Israel?s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the U.S. that restrict how it employs the weapons.

Several Lebanese children have been killed and many others injured in recent days from unexploded cluster bombs still littering the landscape. A United Nations unit said this week that it had found cluster bombs in 249 locations in southern Lebanon.

The investigation by the department?s Office of Defense Trade Controls "began this week, after reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties,' the Times' David S. Cloud reveals.

Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, told the Times, ?We have heard the allegations that these munitions were used, and we are seeking more information.? He declined to comment further.

"In addition to investigating use of the weapons in southern Lebanon, the State Department has held up a shipment of M-26 artillery rockets, a cluster weapon, that Israel sought during the conflict, the officials said, " Cloud writes.

"A Congressional investigation after Israel?s 1982 invasion of Lebanon found that Israel had used the weapons against civilian areas in violation of the agreements. In response, the Reagan administration imposed a six-year ban on further sales of cluster weapons to Israel.

"Israeli officials acknowledged soon after their offensive began last month that they were using cluster munitions against rocket sites and other military targets. While Hezbollah positions were frequently hidden in civilian areas, Israeli officials said their intention was to use cluster bombs in open terrain."

On Wednesday, Amnesty International accused Israel of war crimes in its monthlong battle with Hezbollah, saying its bombing campaign amounted to indiscriminate attacks on Lebanon?s civilian infrastructure and population.

?Many of the violations examined in this report are war crimes that give rise to individual criminal responsibility,? Amnesty International, the London-based human rights group, said in a report on the Israeli campaign. ?They include directly attacking civilian objects and carrying out indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks...

?Statements from the Israeli military officials seem to confirm that the destruction of the infrastructure was indeed a goal of the military campaign,? the report said. It added that ?in village after village the pattern was similar: the streets, especially main streets, were scarred with artillery craters along their length. In some cases, cluster bomb impacts were identified....

?The evidence strongly suggests that the extensive destruction of public works, power systems, civilian homes and industry was a deliberate and integral part of the military strategy rather than collateral damage,? the report read.