SOUTHERN LEBANON The Washington Post recently posted a slideshow of pictures that tell the story of Rasha Zayoun, a 17-year-old girl. Rasha was sorting herbs in her village of Maarake when she picked up an Israeli-dropped cluster bomblet. When it exploded her left foot was mangled beyond repair. Leena Saidi, a Lebanese journalist based in Beirut, narrates the slideshow.

The interactive site also includes a description of what a cluster bomb is and what happens when it detonates. It draws attention to an often over-looked dimension of war. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/interac...

IRAQ Frida Berrigan’s November 28, 2007 op-ed “Unfriendly Fire: Cluster Bombs Keep Killing,” was distributed by MinutemanMedia and focuses on the impact these deadly packages have on U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians. Here is the beginning. Read the rest online at http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/28/548...

Jesus Suarez del Solar died instantly. The Lance Corporal was an early casualty of the U.S. war in Iraq, but he was not killed by enemy fire.

The 20-year-old stepped on our own unexploded ordnance on March 27, 2003. It is likely that the bomblet that killed Jesus was just one of thousands that the United States scattered in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Air Force dropped cluster bombs where he was patrolling just days before, and these deadly weapons leave behind tens or hundreds of thousands of unexploded bomblets which can be detonated days or even years later.