UN clears cluster bombs from areas of south Lebanon

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

TYRE, Lebanon (AFP) — Almost half of the areas in southern Lebanon contaminated with cluster bombs dropped by Israel in 2006 have been cleared, a UN official said on Wednesday.

"Forty three percent of the areas affected by the cluster bombs dropped during the July 2006 war have been cleared", UN Mine Action Coordination Centre for South Lebanon spokeswoman Dalya Farran said.

"Efforts are currently underway to clean 49 percent of the contaminated areas," she told AFP, adding that work has yet to begin in eight percent of the affected areas.

She said 970 contaminated sites had been found in an area spanning 39 million square meters (420 million square feet).

Since the war's end in August 2006, cluster bombs have caused "256 civilian casualties between...