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U.K. Defends Use of Cluster Bombs in Afghanistan
Wednesday, November 7, 2001
IslamOnline & News Agencies

They are designed to explode on contact with the ground, but experts say on average 10 percent of them remain intact and can lie undetected for years, putting at risk anyone who goes near them.

LONDON
British Prime Minister Tony Blair defended Wednesday the use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan, saying the anti-terror coalition had to fight its campaign "vigorously."

He said the weapons, which send out a shower of smaller bombs that explode on their own, had been used on five occasions, once on a training camp of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, and four times on frontline Taliban positions.

British Defense Minister Geoff Hoon also defended the use of so-called "daisy-cutter" bombs by United States-led forces. They are the largest conventional explosive devices in the U.S. arsenal.

Blair told the British Parliament that cluster bombs had a role to play in the military campaign in Afghanistan: "They are weapons that are both legal and are necessary in certain specific circumstances.

"There is no easy or pleasant way to fight a conflict like this."
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Dan