MARJAYOUN (Lebanon), Sept 3: A Belgian sapper with the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon was killed on Wednesday while clearing unexploded ordnance from Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah, UN and Belgian officials said.

“A member of the UNIFIL de-mining unit was killed by an explosion on Wednesday during an inspection and de-mining operation in the village of Aitaroun in the Marjayoun region,” said Yasmina Bouzayane, spokeswoman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. The Belgian defence ministry confirmed the death of the sapper, the fourth Belgian peacekeeper to die in Lebanon since the contingent deployed in August 2006. Three were killed in a road accident last year.

Belgium has 340 soldiers in the 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, most of them engaged in de-mining.

South Lebanon is littered with unexploded munitions from the 2006 conflict, particularly bomblets from cluster munitions dropped by Israeli aircraft. The UN estimates that around 40 per cent of the one million cluster bomb sub-munitions dropped by Israeli planes failed to explode.

UN de-miners have now cleared 43 per cent of the affected areas, but at least 30 Lebanese civilians have been killed by such ordnance left over from the war.—AFP