Thursday, September 14 2006 14:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jerusalem: Israel flooded several Lebanese villages with prohibited cluster bombs and phosporous shells during its recent offensive against Hezbollah fighters, raising fears of loss of lives even after the ceasefire.

"In Lebanon, we covered entire villages with cluster bombs. What we did there was crazy and monstrous," a reserve commander in the Israel Defence Forces' Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) unit has said.

The forces fired some 1,800 cluster rockets, which contains over 1.3 million cluster bomns, on Lebanon during the recent attack, he quoted his battalion commander.

Soldiers in the artillery corps also testified that the IDF used phosphorous shells, which many experts say is prohibited by international law, a report in 'Ha'aretz Online' said.

Overwhelming majority of the weapons mentioned were fired during the last ten days of the war," it said.

There was massive use of MLRS rockets despite the fact that they are known to be very inaccurate with the rockets' deviating from the target upto around 1,200 metres, the reserve commander was quoted as saying.

"A substantial percentage of them do not explode and become mines, "he said.

These bombs were not known for their precission and in order to compensate for the imprecision, the order was to 'flood' the area with them," he said.

"The soldiers were surprised by the use of MLRS rockets, because during their regular army service, they were told these are the IDF's 'judgment day weapons' and intended for use in a full-scale war," the commander added.

The reserve commander also said that at least once they were asked to fire cluster rockets toward 'a village's outskirts' in the early morning.

"They told us that this is a good time because people are coming out of the mosques and the rockets will deter them," he said.



In some other instances, they fired the rockets at a range of less than 15 km,, even though the manufacturer's guidelines state that firing at this range considerably increases the number of duds.



After being discharged from his reserve duty, the Commander sent a letter to Defence Minister Amir Peretz and protested the number of cluster rockets fired in Lebanon, which perhaps the generals forgot to mention.

"As far as the duds are concerned," he wrote.

"We have no control over who is hurt. Sooner or later they will explode in people's hands." He is yet to receive a reply from the minister," the report added.

Soldiers also reported that they fired phosphorous shells, in order to start fires in Lebanon, it said. A direct hit from a phosphorous shell causes severe burns and can lead to death.

"International law does not contain a sweeping ban on the use of cluster bombs. The Conventional Weapons Pact does not stipulate a ban on the use of inflammatory weapons (ie phosphorous - MR), rather it only offers rules for organizing the use of this weapon", an IDF spokesman said.

"The IDF uses only methods and weapons that are permitted according to international law", he added.

The Israeli Defence Minister's bureau told the daily in response that it had yet to receive an enquiry on the matter of firing cluster rockets.