<\body> Stories in America: IDF Commander: We Fired More Than a Million Cluster Bombs in Lebanon

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

IDF Commander: We Fired More Than a Million Cluster Bombs in Lebanon

Remember Lebanon?
"What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs," the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war.

Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the IDF fired around 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets.

In addition, soldiers in IDF artillery units testified that the army used phosphorous shells during the war, widely forbidden by international law. According to their claims, the vast majority of said explosive ordinance was fired in the final 10 days of the war.

The rocket unit commander stated that Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) platforms were heavily used in spite of the fact that they were known to be highly inaccurate.

MLRS is a track or tire carried mobile rocket launching platform, capable of firing a very high volume of mostly unguided munitions. The basic rocket fired by the platform is unguided and imprecise, with a range of about 32 kilometers. The rockets are designed to burst into sub-munitions at a planned altitude in order to blanket enemy army and personnel on the ground with smaller explosive rounds.

The use of such weaponry is controversial mainly due to its inaccuracy and ability to wreak great havoc against indeterminate targets over large areas of territory, with a margin of error of as much as 1,200 meters from the intended target to the area hit.

The cluster rounds which don't detonate on impact, believed by the United Nations to be around 40% of those fired by the IDF in Lebanon, remain on the ground as unexploded munitions, effectively littering the landscape with thousands of land mines which will continue to claim victims long after the war has ended.

Because of their high level of failure to detonate, it is believed that there are around 500,000 unexploded munitions on the ground in Lebanon. To date 12 Lebanese civilians have been killed by these mines since the end of the war.

1 Comments:

At 9/14/2006 7:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm sure nobody would object to this report by Amnesty International. You know, since we're all concerned about how civilians are targeted...


by Phil Hazlewood

Thu Sep 14, 12:58 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) - The militant Shiite group Hezbollah committed war crimes in its deliberate targeting of civilians in the recent conflict with Israel, according to Amnesty International.

The London-based human rights group said the guerillas fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, killing 43 civilians, seriously injuring 33 others and forcing hundreds of thousands to take refuge or flee.

About a quarter of all rockets -- some packed with thousands of metal ball bearings -- were fired directly into urban areas, it added in a nine-page document called "Under fire -- Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israel".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060914/ts_afp/mideastconflictlebanon_060914164338

 

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