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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

VIDEO: Lebanese children victims of unexploded cluster bombs

David EdwardsPublished: Tuesday August 22, 2006

CNN International's Jim Clancy, reporting from southern Lebanon, finds that unexploded munitions are taking a toll on Lebanese children.

A nurse describes the child casualties she sees as "the new phase of the war." Clancy reports that a 10% failure rate among the small bombs released from cluster bombs has left the unexploded--and extremely dangerous--munitions in Lebanon. The bombs dropped on Lebanon were reportedly old, with a much higher failure rate of about 40%.

In the wasteland of southern Lebanon, children gather up metal to sell. It's easy to mistake one of the small cluster bomb-lets for scrap. One child survivor recalls the bomb that put him in a hospital bed, "...my cousin picked up the bomb. It was shaped like a ball. It was an explosion. My insides fell out. I held them and started running and screaming."

Bomb search teams are scouring southern Lebanon but finding the "tens of thousands" of unexploded bombs will take time. Bombs that haven't already armed themselves can be easily destroyed but many others cannot even be touched. The bombs that are already armed can only be flagged and left for later.

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