Lebanon 'bomb' kills UN soldiers

[Cunard]

Lebanon 'bomb' kills UN soldiers
Sunday, 24 June 2007, 17:46 GMT 18:46 UK

At least five soldiers serving with the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) have been killed by an explosion in the south of the country.
Spain's defence ministry has confirmed four of its soldiers were killed - the first Spanish casualties in Lebanon.


A roadside bomb went off as the peacekeepers drove by

The remote-controlled blast occurred near Khiyam close to the Israeli border, Lebanese sources said.

No-one has claimed to have carried out the attack. Radical groups in Lebanon have threatened to attack peacekeepers.

For the last five weeks, the Lebanese army has been battling militants from the Fatah al-Islam group.

Authorities have said that Fatah al-Islam militants who have been arrested and interrogated have confessed there was a plan to attack the UN, says the BBC's Kim Ghattas in Beirut.

The militants are said to be inspired by al-Qaeda.

Multinational force

Sunday's explosion took place took place between the towns of Khiyam and Marjeyoun, near the border with Israel in the area of operation of UN peacekeepers.

A convoy of armoured UN vehicles from a Spanish battalion was hit by the blast.

At least three peacekeepers were also injured in the blast.

It was initially unclear if the soldiers were targeted or hit unexploded ordinance left over from last summer's war between Israel and Lebanon's Shia guerrilla movement Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has issued a statement condemning the attack.

"This act of aggression is aimed at increasing insecurity in Lebanon, especially in the south of the country," it said.



The Unifil peacekeeping force, which has been deployed in Lebanon since 1978, was beefed up last summer after the end of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel.

There are now around 13,000 UN peacekeepers deployed in the area, including French, Spanish and Indian soldiers.



Spanish UN peacekeeping soldiers carry their dead colleague in the southern Lebanese Marjayoun-Khiam valley. Five Spanish UN peacekeepers were killed and three wounded by a roadside bomb in southern Lebanon on Sunday, a Lebanese military source said.(AFP/Ali Dia) Email Photo Print Photo













Lebanon bomb kills 5 U.N. peacekeepers
By SAM F. GHATTAS,
Associated Press Writer
21 minutes ago

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A bomb apparently targeting U.N. peacekeepers exploded by the side of a road in southern Lebanon on Sunday, killing five Spanish troops and injuring at least three, a senior Lebanese military official said.


The senior official in Beirut said a mine may have caused the explosion, but another security official based in southern Lebanon said a bomb detonated at the side of a road about four miles north of the Israeli border town of Metulla. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

In Madrid, the Spanish Defense Ministry confirmed at least four Spanish peacekeepers were killed and three injured. Medical teams with the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, were working in the area, a ministry spokesman said.

White smoke billowed from the armored personnel carrier, which was thrown by the force of the explosion to the side of the road. Fire engines rushed to the area to put out the flames.

Witnesses reported another explosion shortly afterward but it was believed to be either ammunition or the vehicle's fuel tank blowing up.

Sunday's deadly explosion was the first time that UNIFIL has come under attack since it was reinforced last summer after the war between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli forces in Lebanon. The 13,000-member U.N. force from 30 countries along with 15,000 Lebanese troops patrols a zone along Lebanese-Israeli border.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud "strongly denounced" the bombing, saying it was intended to destabilize Lebanon.

In a statement on its television station Al-Manar, Hezbollah also denounced the attack, calling it a "suspicious act." The militant group has had good relations with UNIFIL since the troops were first deployed in Lebanon in 1978.

There have been warnings that the peacekeepers could come under terror attacks, particularly from al-Qaida and its sympathizers. Media reports earlier this month said interrogations by Lebanese authorities with captured militants revealed plots to attack the force.

Those warnings became more serious after Fatah Islam, an Islamic militant group, began fighting Lebanese troops in a northern Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp five weeks ago. The militants have threatened to take their battle outside northern Lebanon and other militant groups have issued Internet statements supporting Fatah Islam.

Earlier Sunday, the state-run National News Agency said the Spanish battalion had organized a celebration in its headquarters in Ibl el-Saqi near Marjayoun to mark the anniversary of St. John the Baptist — the patron saint of King Juan Carlos. The celebration was attended by UNIFIL commander, Gen. Claudio Graziano of Italy.

Southern Lebanon has been largely quiet after the summer war that killed more than 1,200 people, most of them in Lebanon. Rockets were fired on Israel a week ago, causing damage but no casualties in an attack that was blamed on radical Palestinians or sympathizers with Fatah Islam.

The attack on the peacekeepers comes amid growing instability in Lebanon.

Along with the northern fighting and the southern rocket attack, about a half dozen bombs have exploded in residential neighborhoods in the Beirut area since the Fatah Islam-army fighting erupted May 20. One of the Beirut bombs killed a prominent anti-Syrian member of the country's Parliament.

On Sunday, Lebanese troops raided an apartment complex suspected of housing Islamic militants in the northern port city of Tripoli, sparking a gunbattle that left 10 people dead, including a soldier and six gunmen, security officials said.

The fighting marked a new escalation in the army's battle with Islamic militants, as the fighting shifted from the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared on Tripoli's outskirts back to the city itself.

A soldier, a policeman and two family members were killed in Sunday's confrontation, the security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They said six of the gunmen were also killed — three Saudis, an ethnic Chechen and two Lebanese who also held European citizenships.

According to the officials, at least two of the militants had been living there for some time. Others took refuge there with them on Saturday.

Before Sunday's gunbattle, Tripoli had not seen fighting since the first week of the conflict with Fatah Islam militants at Nahr el-Bared, Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

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Associated Press Writer Mar Roman in Madrid, Spain contributed to this report