MARJAYOUN (Lebanon), June 24: Five UN peacekeepers were killed by a car bomb in southern Lebanon on Sunday, further rattling security as another 11 people died in fighting with Islamists in the north.
Two Spaniards and three Colombians serving in the Spanish contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were killed by the bomb, which a Lebanese security source said was detonated by remote control as their armoured vehicle passed by.
Another three Spanish troops were wounded in 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 said it was a “deliberate attack” in the Marjayoun-Khiam valley, an area frequently patrolled by the peacekeepers only some 10 kilometres 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.” In Madrid, Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told a televised news conference that his country “supports and will continue to support the United Nations UNIFIL mission.”
“During questioning, some members of Fatah al-Islam confessed that one of the main aims of their group was to carry out attacks on UNIFIL in southern Lebanon,” one source said.
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.
“Hezbollah vigorously condemns the attack (and) considers it a suspicious act which hurts Lebanon and its inhabitants,” the group said in a statement.
“This act of aggression is aimed at increasing insecurity in Lebanon, especially in the south of the country.” 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 Aug 11, 2006.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said the attack was part of a “campaign of destabilisation” against his country, which has been rocked by political assassinations and the ongoing fighting with Islamist extremists.
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.
The fighting began when militants opened up with automatic weapons on an army jeep in the Abu Samra district of northern Lebanon's port city, killing one soldier.
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.—AFP
