U.N. Says Bombs Litter Areas of Lebanon (Pretty Important)

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Unexploded cluster bomb litter homes, gardens and highways in south Lebanon, the U.N. said Friday, as the State Department reportedly investigated whether Israel's use of the American-made weapons violated secret agreements with the United States.

Dalya Farran, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center, said cluster bombs have been found in 285 locations in south Lebanon.

''And our teams are still doing surveys and adding new locations every day,'' Farran said. ''We find about 30 new locations per day.''

The State Department is investigating whether Israel's use of three types of American cluster munitions -- anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area -- violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when such arms can be employed, The New York Times reported Friday.

The newspaper quoted several current and former U.S. officials as saying they doubted the inquiry would lead to sanctions against Israel, but that it might be an effort by the Bush administration to ease Arab criticism of its military support for Israel.

The U.S. has also postponed a shipment of M-26 artillery rockets, another cluster weapon, to Israel, the newspaper said.

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So who is gonna pay for all that clean-up, eh? I would hope ISRAEL, but somehow, I doubt it. More than likely, the UN or Israel's big lapdog, the US, will foot the bill. You could certainly put this on the same level with all the unexploded mines littering various war-torn countries in the world.