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AAI in the News

U.S. Arab Group Calls to Ban Cluster Bombs

United Press International
Posted on Wednesday November 29, 2006

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 (UPI)—An Arab-American group has called on the U.S. government to ban the use of cluster bombs.

“The U.S. should lead the charge in banning these horrific weapons immediately. We might regain some of our lost moral leadership in the process,” the Washington-based Arab-American Institute said in a statement Tuesday.

AAI noted a recent report in the Christian Science Monitor that “cluster bombs have killed at least 22 civilians and injured 133 since the end of the summer’s conflict between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas, during which Israel showered Lebanon with the U.S.- and Israeli-made bomblets.” AAI also cited a report from Handicap International that had concluded that some 98 percent of those killed and injured by cluster bombs in conflicts around the world were civilians, including many of them children, make up 98 percent of those killed and injured by these munitions across the globe.”

AAI also cited a recent report by the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that said, “Israel made use of American-made cluster bombs that left behind thousands of unexploded bomblets, even though Israel Military Industries produces cluster bombs that leave nearly no exploded munitions.”