Posted on 10/19/2006 2:45:29 PM PDT by Ben Mugged
A rights group reported Thursday for the first time that Hezbollah fired cluster bombs at civilian areas in northern Israel during their summer war, although the number of strikes was a fraction of what Israel dropped on Lebanon.
Human Rights Watch said in a report that three Israeli civilians were injured when at least two cluster munitions landed between three homes in the Galilee village of Maghar on July 25.
The New York-based group and the United Nations have accused Israel of firing as many as 4 million cluster munitions into Lebanon, leaving unexploded ordnance that still threatens Lebanese civilians. Since the Israel-Hezbollah war ended Aug. 14, these duds have killed 20 Lebanese civilians and wounded 120 others, most of them children.
In its most recent report, Human Rights Watch also accused Hezbollah of using the weapons during the war, which began July 12 when Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. The group relied on witness reports, Israeli officials and its own investigation.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the report.
"We are disturbed to discover that not only Israel but also Hezbollah used cluster munitions in their recent conflict," Steve Goose, director of Human Rights Watch's arms division, said in the report.
The report said Hezbollah's deployment of the Chinese-made Type-81, 122 mm rockets was "the first confirmed use of this particular model of cluster munition anywhere in the world," although the group said it did not know how and when Hezbollah obtained the weapons.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Rut Roh scoopy..
Hezbollah fired two cluster bombs, Israel fired 4 million.
See? They both fired cluster bombs. They're equally guilty. Move along now. Nothing to see here.
Then the group has its head up its @$$. Everyone else knows where these munitions originated. China sells them to Iran....Iran supplies them to Syria and Hezbollah.
I really don't think the outrage in this conflict stems from the use of cluster munitions, rather....the unprovoked attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians by Hezbollah that started it all.
The ball bearings in the Hezbolla rocket warheads were intended to kill people. The rockets are unguided. Hezbolla cared not a whit where they landed, or who they killed.
If Hezbolla only fired a few cluster munitions, it is because Hezbolla only had a few.
A cluster bomb contains miniature bombs, not ball bearings.
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