UK airport used to fly bombs to Israel

2.07.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 28th Jul 2006

Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Moore has written a letter to Margaret Beckett calling for an investigation following the confirmation that Britain has been used as a staging post for major shipments of bunker-busting bombs from America to Israel.

The Israelis want the 5,000lb smart bombs to attack the bunkers being used by Hizbollah leaders in Lebanon. Two chartered Airbus A310 cargo planes filled with GBU 28 laser-guided bombs landed at Prestwick airport, near Glasgow, for refuelling and crew rests after flying across the Atlantic at the

Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Moore MP

Michael Moore said "In light of Israel's disproportionate military attacks against civilians and the civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and Gaza, in contravention of international law, the Foreign Secretary is right to be angered that the US is supplying Israel with high tech weaponry via the UK."

Sir Menzies Campbell also said "Any alliance must be based on trust, even one as intimate as that between the US and the UK. If these reports are true, it is particularly provocative for the United States to have acted in this way. It can only reinforce the belief of many that Britain is taken for granted in the so-called special relationship. Who knows how many of these munitions may be used to cause the kind of damage to Lebanon which the Prime Minister of that country described in Rome as cutting his country to pieces. One way of ensuring restraint on the part of Israel would be to cut off the supply of arms and equipment."