Controversial Clusters

To back up the charge that the Israelis were using lethal cluster bombs supplied by the U.S. in civilian areas, the P.L.O. last week put on display parts of one type of the weapon that it claimed had been found in Lebanon. The U.S. had provided the Israelis with two models of the bomb, both of which work on the same principle. The Mark 20 Rockeye scatters eight-inch steel darts and the Cluster Bomb Unit 58 sprays bomblets armed with a charge that explodes on impact (see diagram). Because the bombs indiscriminately blast an area several hundred feet in diameter, they...