Six UN troops killed in Lebanon bombing
Pastor Dale Morgan
Monday June 25, 6:16 AM
*Six UN troops killed in Lebanon bombing*
Six UN peacekeepers were killed by a car bomb in southern Lebanon on
Sunday, the UN mission said, further rattling security as another 11
people died in fighting with Islamists in the north.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said six troops
from a Spanish contingent were killed by the bomb, which a Lebanese
security source said was detonated by remote control as their armoured
vehicle passed by.
Initial reports said five soldiers serving in the Spanish army were
killed and three others wounded after the blast.
But one of the three injured, a 19-year-old soldier from the
southwestern Spanish city of Seville, died later in hospital, a Spanish
defence ministry spokesman said in Madrid.
Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso earlier confirmed the other
five dead, three Colombian nationals serving in the Spanish army and two
Spanish citizens.
The blast was the first fatal attack on UN peacekeepers since UNIFIL's
mandate was expanded last year in the wake of a devastating 34-day war
between Israeli troops and the Hezbollah Shiite militia in southern Lebanon.
A Spanish colonel told AFP it was a "deliberate attack" in the
Marjayoun-Khiam valley, an area frequently patrolled by the peacekeepers
only some 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Israeli border.
"This attack was very well prepared in advance," the Spanish officer
said at the scene. "The bodies of two of the victims were blown several
metres (yards) by the force of the blast."
UNIFIL commander Major-General Claudio Graziano of Italy said the
bombing was aimed at destabilising the region.
"It's not an attack against Lebanon and UNIFIL only but against the
stability of the region. This attack has made UNIFIL more committed to
fulfil its mission in southern Lebanon," he said in a statement.
In Madrid, Alonso told a televised news conference that his country
"supports and will continue to support the United Nations UNIFIL mission."
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Lebanese judicial
sources have told AFP that captured Islamist fighters from a group
battling the army in the north of the country have threatened attacks on
UN peacekeepers.
UNIFIL first deployed in Lebanon in 1978 after an Israeli invasion but
was expanded from some 2,000 members after the July-August war between
Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas who dominated the south of the country.
The attack came on top of a series of car bombings targeting anti-Syrian
politicians in and around Beirut and as the army pursued its bloodiest
internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war with Fatah al-Islam in
the north.
Hezbollah was quick to condemn the bombing in an area considered its
stronghold. "This act of aggression is aimed at increasing insecurity in
Lebanon, especially in the south of the country," it said in a statement.
Southern Lebanon is the heartland of Hezbollah whose disarmament UNIFIL
is supposed to be monitoring in accordance with UN Security Council
Resolution 1701 which ended the war with Israel on August 11, 2006.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her French counterpart
Bernard Kouchner jointly condemned the bombing as Rice visited Paris for
an international conference on Sudan's Darfur conflict.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said the attack was part of a "campaign
of destabilisation" against his country.
"This aggression can only reinforce our determination to strengthen the
cooperation of the Lebanese army with UNIFIL," he said.
Spain has deployed nearly 1,100 troops to southeastern Lebanon near the
border with Israel as part of UNIFIL, which now has 13,225 soldiers from
30 countries.
In the north, 11 people died in clashes in the port city of Tripoli
overnight Saturday, including six Sunni Islamists from Fatah al-Islam
and a policeman's 10-year-old daughter, the army said.
Two civilians, one soldier and the police sergeant also died in a
three-hour firefight which erupted as the army raided the apartment of a
militant, an army spokesman said.
A military statement said 11 soldiers were also wounded, some seriously,
in the first clashes in the mainly Sunni Muslim city since fighting
erupted five weeks ago between Fatah al-Islam and the army at a nearby
refugee camp.
Fighters loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas' mainstream Fatah
faction said that they had killed three Islamists at the Nahr al-Bared
camp, 15 kilometres (nine miles) farther north.
At least 161 people, including some 60 Islamists and 80 soldiers, are
known to have have died in the violence but precise figures are unavailable.
About 2,000 residents of the camp's pre-battle population of 31,000 are
still inside Nahr al-Bared.
In Paris, Rice earlier called on the international community to send a
"very strong message" to Syria -- blamed for supporting extremists in
Lebanon -- that continued interference would not be tolerated.
Syria denies any involvement in the unrest in its smaller neighbour.