UN vows answers on whether Israel used uranium munitions

[Jcrowley]

UN vows answers on whether Israel used uranium munitions during summer war
Samples from 2 bomb craters in south show high radioactivity

Monday, October 30, 2006

BEIRUT: The United Nations, which has been studying ecological damage in Lebanon caused by Israel's summer offensive, said Saturday that it would soon be able to say whether uranium-based munitions were used, as reported by a British newspaper. The Independent newspaper said scientists studying samples of soil after Israeli bombing in Lebanon have shown high radiation levels, suggesting that uranium-based munitions were used.

It said samples taken from two bomb craters in Khiam and Al-Tiri have been sent for further analysis to the Harwell laboratory in Oxfordshire, southern England, for mass spectrometry. "If there is uranium we will find it," said Boutros Harb, director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) for Asia and the Middle East, based in Bahrain.

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The experts tested air, water and soil samples at some 75 heavily bombarded sites in southern Lebanon and the mainly suburbs of southern Beirut, Harb added. Their report will be made public mid-December in Beirut.

At least 1,140 civilians - 30 percent of them children under 12 - have been killed along with 43 Lebanese Army and police troops in the offensive, the state Higher Relief Commission said. Many have unexplained wounds and burns that are still being studied. - Agencies

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