One month on, Israeli cluster bombs still maiming Lebanese

TYRE, Lebanon (AFP) - A month after the end of hostilities, doctors in southern Lebanon continue to treat victims of Israeli cluster bombs, with the plague of unexploded ordnance proving difficult to eradicate.

"Since the ceasefire, we have looked after 28 wounded here, and their number increases day by day," says Abdallah Shehab, a male charge nurse at the Jabal Amel de Tyre Hospital, describing the majority of cases as "serious and dangerous".

In the Tyre area alone, three civilians have been killed and around 50 others have been wounded by Israeli cluster bombs since the August 14 ceasefire, according to the local police.

Exactly a month later on September 14, Shadi Aoun became the latest victim when he came into contact with one of the unexploded bomblets in an orchard at Shabriha, on the port city's northern outskirts.

Doctors had to amputate one of his legs.

On the same day, Youssef Mrad, 18, and 19-year-old Ali Trad were wounded while herding cattle close to Qaaqayiat Al-Jisr, near Nabatiyeh farther to the east.

Across the whole of southern Lebanon at least 21 people -- 16 of them civilians and five bomb disposal experts -- have been killed by the Israeli cluster bombs, while more than 100 others have been wounded, say police.

Cluster munitions spread bomblets over a wide area from a single container. The bomblets often do not explode on impact, but can do so later at the slightest touch, making them similar to anti-personnel landmines.

Jabal Amel, a young man on crutches, makes his way through the medical facility.

At the door of a room, Abdel Karim al-Laban, 31, throws a glance at a patient stretched out on a bed.

"Mohammed and I are from the same village of Tayr Debba, close to Tyre," he says. "We were watering an orchard when his foot touched a part of a bomb. I was 20 metres (60 feet) away from him, and a shard went into my leg."

His friend was not as fortunate.

"He was hit by shrapnel in the head. He's been in a coma for three days," his doctor, Nasser Farran, told AFP.

According to Israel's liberal Haaretz newspaper, the Jewish state's army dropped more than 1.2 million cluster bombs into Lebanon during the month-long conflict.

United Nations chief Kofi Annan has condemned Israel's use of cluster bombs, and the world body estimates that as many as 40 percent of the apple-sized bomblets fired into Lebanon failed to explode on impact.

Dalya Farran, the spokesman with a Tyre-based organisation that deals with landmines, says demining teams have succeeded in locating 488 cluster bomb sites in southern Lebanon.

"Up until now, we have exploded 16,000 bombs," he adds.

According to charge nurse Shehab, the cluster bomb victims have often been children playing close to houses, among them Mohammad Fadel.

The nine-year-old has been in hospital for 10 days, having had a series of operations after suffering wounds when a bomblet exploded in Rashknanay village near Tyre.

Confined to a bed in the same room are Hassan Thini, 11, his sister Soukna, 13, and their 12-year-old cousin Marwa, who were all brought to the hospital from Aita ash-Shaab, a village almost totally destroyed by Israeli bombardment.

"When they arrived, Hassan's intestines were outside and we had to remove a great part of them. Shrapnel tore into his liver and stomach," says Shehab.

The charge nurse says that he fears more carnage.

The inhabitants of southern Lebanon who returned to their homes after the ceasefire are now venturing out into the fields in increasing numbers.

"Most are peasants who want to water the crops that they still have, or to harvest bananas and citrus fruit" despite the risk of losing their lives, Shebab says.

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