Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch

groups have destroyed 6,892 M85s with and without self-destruct systems, 5
percent of the total number of submunitions found in Lebanon. 75
Israel used only limited numbers of its new Trajectory Correction System MLRS
rockets with M85 submunitions. Israeli soldiers told Human Rights Watch that the
IDF fired a total of 130 TCS rockets and used them exclusively in the earlier stages of
the conflict. 76 An IDF reserve officer told a reporter that his battalion used only a
small number of RAMAM rockets (the Hebrew acronym for TCS) and just in the first
days of the war. 77 The control unit for TCS, inside an armored vehicle, required level
ground for proper guidance operation. TCS fire missions involved shooting one to
three rockets at a target, in contrast to the mass firing of M26 rockets in later weeks.
Soldiers in the battalion received little, but contradictory, feedback on the
performance of TCS. 78
Israel also used aerially delivered CBU-58B cluster bombs with BLU-63 submunitions,
both made and supplied by the United States. Each CBU-58B contains 650 BLU-63
bomblets, which are ball-shaped, weigh roughly one pound, and measure three
inches in diameter. 79 The bombs and bomblets are Vietnam war-era weapons
developed in the early 1960s. While fewer BLU-63s were used than DPICMs,
deminers have still found 28,136 duds from 2006 throughout Lebanon, 20 percent of
their total clearance numbers. 80 MACC SL officials blame the submunition’s high dud
rate on the fact that it is an “ancient weapon.” 81 The United States last used this
cluster bomb in the 1991 Gulf War and no longer has it in its inventory.
2007); email communication from Dalya Farran, media and post clearance officer, MACC SL, to Human Rights Watch, January
16, 2008.
75 Email communication from Dalya Farran, media and post clearance officer, MACC SL, to Human Rights Watch, January 18,
2008.
76 Human Rights Watch interviews with IDF reservists (names withheld), Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel, October 2006. The TCS
was used only during the second week of operations according to one soldier serving in the reserve MLRS battalion.
77 Meron Rapoport, “A Barrage of Accusations,” Ha’aretz, December 8, 2006.
78 Human Rights Watch interviews with IDF reservists (names withheld), Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel, October 2006.
79 Designation-Systems.net, “BAK to BSU/BSG–Equipment Listing,” http://www.designation-systems.net/usmilav/asetds/ub.html
(accessed September 3, 2007).
80 Email communication from Dalya Farran, media and post clearance officer, MACC SL, to Human Rights Watch, January 18,
2008.
81 Human Rights Watch interview with Chris Clark, program manager, MACC SL, Tyre, October 21, 2006.
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