The most popular delivery device, the American-made M26 rocket, scatters 644 bomblets over 20,000 square metres. Under test conditions up to 23% of bomblets from the M26 failed to explode on impact. The United States keeps 370,000 such rockets in stock.
The bombs are ejected from artillery shells in mid-flight, showering a wide area with explosions that can kill within 10 metres (33ft). But up to a quarter fail to explode, creating minefields that kill civilians once the war is over. A decades-old campaign to ban them has failed.Walsh/Guardian 21.Aug.06
Israel turned to cluster bombs in the last week of the war, apparently frustrated at the failure of conventional weapons to rout Hizbullah fighters from their foxholes. Mine-clearance teams are finding evidence pointing to their provenance:
the US, the world's largest cluster bomb manufacturer, which gave Israel $2.2bn in military aid last year.
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Cluster Munitions - Relevant International Humanitarian Law
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HRW- Existing International Humanitarian Law
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Geneva Forum - Reducing the Humanitarian Impact of Cluster Bombs: What can be done?
