Posted on 09/14/2006 8:40:07 AM PDT by epluribus_2
LONDON - The militant Shiite group Hezbollah committed war crimes in its deliberate targeting of civilians in the recent conflict with Israel, Amnesty International said in a report on Thursday.
The London-based human rights group said the guerrillas 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 document called “Under fire — Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel”.
It was only because Israeli civilians fled their homes or took shelter in bunkers that prevented a higher death toll, it said.
“The scale of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israeli cities, towns and villages, the indiscriminate nature of the weapons used and statements from the leadership confirming their intent to target civilians make it all too clear that Hezbollah violated the laws of war,” said Amnesty’s secretary-general Irene Khan.
“The fact that Israel has also committed serious violations in no way justifies violations by Hezbollah. Civilians must not be made to pay the price for unlawful conduct on either side.”
Amnesty’s claims come less than a month after it called for both sides to be investigated for “grave violations” of human rights law, accusing Israel of “indiscriminate and disproportionate” attacks on civilian infrastructure and war crimes.
During the month-long conflict, Amnesty said Hezbollah’s firing of Katyusha rockets into urban areas flouted the principle in international law of distinguishing between civilian and military targets.
“In the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, the suffering of civilians on both sides has been repeatedly ignored with those responsible escaping all accountability,” Khan said.
“Justice is urgently needed if respect for the rules of war is ever to be taken seriously — and that means accountability for the perpetrators of war crimes and reparations for the victims.”
or placing a bunch of retarded and crippled kids in a house they are firing missiles from so they can orchestrate another MSM photographed "massacre".
There could have been a climate shift recently. Perhaps the commie libs were actually alarmed at how willing the NeoCons are to fight it out including total thermonuclear annihilation if it comes to that.
It took them all this time to figure out ways not to say this...
But the AI wackos wont really pursue the matter they would rather bitch about us keeping killers locked up.
I agree with you...They will sacrifice Hizbollah for an opportunity to snag Israel...
Amnesty International slings the word war crimes around so much it doesn't mean a damn thing anymore.
I wouldn't get too excited. This is just the liberal version of the American Family Assoc. wanting to censor the 911 movie. Both groups have one and only one focus and don't care about collateral damage. Rights is rights, I tell you!
Let me correct that statement. It should read:
All rockets were fired directly into urban areas— some packed with thousands of metal ball bearings — of those, one quarter hit the intended target.
Every damn site you saw of where a Hezbollah missile landed, everything within a 50 yard radius looked like it had been hit with a shotgun blast. Hundreds of tiny holes from the ballbearings everywhere.
But it takes these assponies a whole month after the war to mention anything about it.
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