Israel being investigated over cluster bomb allegations

WASHINGTON - The US government is investigating whether Israel has broken secret agreements with Washington with its use in the recent Lebanon conflict of cluster bombs - now reportedly littering almost 300 sites in the south of the country.

Officials confirmed yesterday that the State Department had launched the probe, into possible violation by Israel of an undertaking to use the controversial weapons only against organised armies and defined military targets.

The Pentagon has also postponed a shipment of M-26 artillery shells, which deliver cluster bombs, according to the New York Times.

The move came as the United Nations said it was continuing to find new areas riddled with cluster bombs, small munitions that can be lethal for civilians.

"There are about 285 cluster bomb locations across southern Lebanon, and our teams are finding 30 new ones every day," a UN spokeswoman said.

"A lot of them are in civilian areas, on farmland and in peoples' homes.

We've found a lot at the entrances of houses, on balconies and roofs," she added.

"Sometimes windows are broken and they get inside the houses." Since the August 14 ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah, eight Lebanese - including two children - have been killed by cluster bombs, and 38 injured.

Israel, however, insists it has done nothing wrong.

All the weapons used in the war were legal under international law, "and their use conforms with international standards," an army spokesman said.

Israeli commanders have moreover frequently accused Hizbollah of deliberately operating out of civilian villages, using local inhabitants as a shield.

It would be a surprise if the investigation led to further action by Washington, possibly in the form of sanctions, against its ally - especially after President Bush's explicit support for Israel's decision to invade.

More likely, officials told the Times, the publicly announced probe was intended to placate Arab criticism of the unswerving support of the US for Israel.

A similar controversy arose in 1982, when Israel used US-made cluster bombs in that year's invasion of Lebanon.

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