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UK bought Israeli cluster bombs ahead of Iraq war

IRNA

London, Nov 18, IRNA -- The British army started to buy Israeli-made 
cluster munitions for the first time during the months leading up to 
the Iraq war, Arms Forces Minister Adam Ingram has revealed. 
The Defence Ministry has previously admitted that British troops 
fired over 2,000 Israeli L20 artillery shells that each contain 49 
bomblets, including in built-up areas, far more than the number of 
cluster bombs dropped by the UK air force. 
In reply to a written question in parliament on Monday, Ingram 
said that 6,000 L20 shells were purchased from Israeli Military 
Industries in the year ending March 2003. 
He further disclosed that the Defence Ministry had increased its 
order since the Iraq war started and had purchased over 20,000 more 
during the current financial year. 
The British government has come under extensive criticism for 
using controversial cluster bombs in the face of the multiple 
civilian casualties that are caused in highly populated areas and 
from the unexploded ordnance that is left behind. 
Speaking in an interview with the BBC in May, Ingram defended the 
use of the munitions, insisting that cluster bombers were `not 
illegal` but were `effective weapons`. 
The campaign group Landmine Action has complained that cluster 
bombs were used by the US and UK in and around virtually every built- 
up area where there was fighting during the Iraq war. 
Its director Richard Lloyd said the protest was made after seeing 
maps provided to the UN by the US military showing cities that were 
almost obscured by a mass of symbols indicating where cluster bombs 
had been used. 
HC/212 
End