A British minister has broken ranks and called for cluster bombs to be banned due to their deadly impact on innocent civilians, according to a leaked letter in The Sunday Times newspaper.International Development Secretary Hilary Benn wrote to government colleagues arguing that the weapons were “essentially equivalent to land mines” and caused thousands of unnecessary deaths. His comments clash with the British government’s position that cluster munitions play a “legitimate” role in modern warfare and that it would be “unfair” on British troops not to use them when enemies were doing so. Benn said Britain should push for a ban on cluster bombs at a ban at a major international arms convention in New York next week.