Dr. Franklin Lamb, author of Israel’s War in Lebanon: Eyewitness Chronicles of the Invasion and Occupation (1984) and currently a research associate with Americans Knew, has produced two excellent articles about Israel’s most recent use of American cluster bombs in Lebanon:
http://counterpunch.org/lamb09142006.html
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/clusterbombs.html
In addition, he was a resource person for an investigative report broadcast on this topic by Australia’s public television network: [Link]
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The SBS report that IAK refers to is this one I think: The Siege of Beirut (SBS.tv 23-08-2006)
IDF commander: We fired more than a million cluster bombs in Lebanon
By Meron Rappaport
September 12, 2006
“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. [More]
Recent findings confirm that Israel may have dropped as many as 60 % of the cluster bombs they used during July-August 2006 in the 72 hours immediately before the ceasefire. Military analysts on the ground offer two explanations:
1. Shear frustration, hatred, and rage by Israel’s leadership and its obsession with punishing Lebanon for its more than 85% support (including Lebanon’s middle class and Christian citizens) for Hezbollah’s resistance to Israel’s attempted reoccupation up to the Litani River.
2. A desire by Israel to get rid of as much of its U.S. cluster bomb inventory as possible, which the Pentagon has stipulated must be reduced to a lower level before Israel can reorder newer models like the M-26. This is why the 33 year old CBU-58, almost extinct, was used so widely. Israel was cleaning out its CBU closet for new orders, one Lebanese army source reported. [More]