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World Landmine News
US aid to help clear Lebanon mines - The Daily Telegraph
THE US State Department today offered to provide nearly $US2.5 million ($3.28 million) in additional aid to help clear mines and other abandoned weapons in Lebanon, hours after three Lebanese troops and an Israeli soldier were killed by unexploded ordnance.
The department said its Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement planned to provide an immediate $US420,000 ($551,800) to help remove unexploded mines and cluster bombs left over from the recent 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas.
The aid, subject to congressional approval, would aim to protect Lebanese civilians who began returning to their homes in southern Lebanon after a UN-brokered truce took effect on August 14, it said in a statement.
An additional $US2.0 million ($2.63 million) will be sought to continue the work into the next fiscal year, which begins October 1, it said.
The initial emergency grant of $US420,000 ($551,800) will go to to the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a non-governmental organisation that specialises in clearing unexploded bombs, cluster munitions, landmines and other abandoned ordnance around the towns of Nabatiyeh, Jezzine, and Hasbya, it said.
The announcement came just hours after three Lebanese soldiers were killed trying to defuse an unexploded Israeli cluster bomb and an Israeli died after stepping on a mine planted by his own army in southern Lebanon, Israeli and Lebanese officials said.
More than 30 Lebanese have been killed and hundreds wounded by some of the estimated 400,000 landmines planted by Israeli forces during the previous occupation of southern Lebanon from 1978 to 2000.
Some 20 Lebanese or UN personnel have also been wounded in demining operations.
Israel also made use during the more recent fighting of cluster bombs - anti-personnel weapons that scatter multiple 'bomblets' designed to take out large numbers of enemy troops.
Posted: Thursday, August 24, 2006
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