Last update - 00:00 22/10/2006
Lebanese security: 12-year-old killed by cluster bomb in south
By The Associated Press
A cluster bomb exploded Sunday, killing a 12-year-old boy and wounding his younger brother in a southern Lebanese village, Lebanese security officials said.
Rami Ali Hussein Shibly and his brother, Khodr, 9, where picking olives in their family's grove in Halta when the cluster bomb exploded, said the security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
The United Nations and human rights groups have accused Israel of firing as many as 4 million cluster bombs into Lebanon during its 34-day war with the militant group Hezbollah that ended in a UN-brokered cease-fire on August 14.
UN demining experts say up to 1 million of the cluster bombs failed to explode immediately and continue to threaten civilians, especially children who can mistake the ordnance for batteries or other small objects.
Sunday's death brings to at least 21 the number of people who have died in cluster bomb explosions in Lebanon since the war ended. More than 100 people have been wounded, according to the UN Mine Action Center.
The London-based advocacy group Landmine Action warned in a report issued this month that civilian casualties would continue to increase as people return to their villages in southern Lebanon and sift through the "cluster munition-infested rubble" of their homes.