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U.S. rebukes Israel over cluster bomb "misuse"

Ewen MacAskill

Washington: The U.S. Government delivered a mild but rare rebuke to Israel on Monday when the State Department concluded it might have misused American-made cluster bombs during its offensive against Lebanon last summer.

A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said that after a U.S. investigation, a preliminary classified report had been sent to Congress so it could decide whether to pursue the issue. ``There were likely violations,'' he said.

The U.N. last year said Israel had dropped 100,000 cluster bombs that remained unexploded, 90 per cent of them in the last few days of the war, and described this as ``immoral''.

The U.N. mine office said last week it had found hundreds of bomblets of the types made by the U.S. among unexploded ordnance recovered in nearly 250 locations in southern Lebanon.

Given the close relationship between Israel and the U.S., with Washington providing huge financial aid, it is unusual for it to make any criticism of the country. When Israel buys cluster bombs and other lethal equipment from the U.S., it must agree in writing to restrictions on their use.

Mr McCormack said the report ``is not a final judgment''. The Reagan administration imposed a six-year ban on cluster weapon sales to Israel in 1982, after a Congressional investigation found misuse of the weapons during Israel's war that year with Lebanon. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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