A broad U.S.-funded effort to help rebuild Lebanon has removed 50,000 pieces of unexploded cluster bombs left from the July-August conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, a senior U.S. official said Thursday. Randall Tobias, the State Department's director of foreign assistance, described his recent trip to Lebanon and told reporters in Washington that about half of the unexploded ordinance has now been cleared. “At the time I was there, the estimate was that we had removed or assisted in the removal of about 50,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance,” he said. “The effort to remove the unexploded ordnance is moving along very aggressively and we're really making a lot of progress.” Many of the bombs came from US-made “cluster bombs” dropped by the Israeli military during the war. The weapons each spread hundreds of smaller explosives, but many failed to explode on impact. The UN Mine Action Service estimates that more than a dozen Lebanese have been killed and many more wounded by the unexploded cluster bombs since August 14. Tobias also noted that Washington has already spent 100 million dollars of the 250 million dollars in emergency aid granted to Lebanon following the war. Other U.S.-financed projects include helping fishermen recover oil spills along the coast, introducing computers to local government and creating a farmers' cooperative. “There is appreciation for what the United States and the American people are doing,” said Tobias. “Ordinary Lebanese who were benefiting from all that came up to me, thanking me for what the American people are helping them to do.”
