Lebanese haunted by deadly cluster bombs

HALTA, Lebanon, Nov 2 (Reuters) Eleven-year-old Ramy Shibleh was gathering pine cones outside this small southern Lebanese town, hoping to make some money to buy toys ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday.

His father, Ali Shibleh, was waiting at home for Ramy and his brother Khodor, 13. He needed them to help him pick olives.

''Suddenly I heard an explosion,'' Shibleh said, choking on tears. ''I heard Khodor screaming 'Ramy!', I yelled back at him 'Son, where is Ramy?' He said, 'Father, Ramy died.' I told him 'Khodor you are joking', he said, 'No, Ramy is dead.'' The brothers were heading home when the wheel of their cart jammed against what they thought was a rock.

Ramy bent down, picked up the object and as he raised his arm to throw it out of the way, it exploded, tearing off his right arm and the back of his head. He died instantly.

His brother Khodor was hit by shrapnel in the hip and is still in hospital.

Ramy's death added to a toll still rising after Israel's month-long war against Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.

The object he picked up was a cluster bomblet -- one of hundreds of thousands dropped by Israel on the region before an Aug. 14 ceasefire.

During the war, nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed. And lives are still being lost.

Between August 14 and October 8, around 20 people were killed in southern Lebanon by cluster munitions. Land mine activists said last month that cluster bombs are still killing or injuring three to four civilians a day, a third of them children.

BURNING HEARTS The report by London-based Landmine Action said hundreds of thousands of unexploded cluster bomblets still litter the countryside, even though more than 45,000 have been cleared and destroyed.

Cluster bombs burst into bomblets and spread out near the ground. While some aim to destroy tanks, others are designed to kill or maim humans over a wide area.

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