( RIA Novosti ) - A British mining expert was killed in south Lebanon by a cluster bomb left over from the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, officials said on Thursday.
The explosion went off in Bint Jbeil, a town close to the Israeli border, as the 36-year-old weapons expert, employed by a private company as part of a United Nations project, was sweeping for mines.
Unexploded weapons have killed at least 23 people and wounded more than 200 in the Lebanon since the conflict with Israel ended in August 2006.
Israeli military operations against the Lebanon-based Islamist group Hezbollah in late July-early August claimed the lives of over 1,000 Lebanese civilians, forced nearly a quarter of the country's population to flee, and demolished some 100 bridges and 60 highways. About 160 Israelis also died.