U.S. says it has removed 50,000 unexploded bombs in Lebanon

Ha'aretz

The United States has helped remove more than 50,000 unexploded bombs in southern Lebanon since the end of the war last August with Israel, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

The U.S. government's aid chief, Randall Tobias, said unexploded bombs remained a major problem in Lebanon where Israel dropped many thousands of cluster bombs. Many of those bombs are reported to be U.S.-made.

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The State Department is investigating whether Israel violated U.S. rules in its use of U.S.-made rockets armed with cluster bombs in Lebanon. A State Department spokesman said the investigation was ongoing.

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The United States promised about e250 million in aid for Lebanon following the war and Tobias said about $100 million had been spent so far.

He said Washington was involved in building bridges and in trying to clean up after an oil spill during the war that marred parts of Lebanon's coastline and hit the fishing industry hard.