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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| No casualties in attack on U.N. convoy in Lebanon |
| 2007-07-17 |
| A UN peacekeeping vehicle was slightly damaged on Monday by a small roadside bomb at a bridge in southern Lebanon, the UN and the Lebanese military said. The blast came less than a month after a car bombing cost the lives of three Spanish and three Columbian members of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on June 24. "We can confirm an explosion in the area of Qasmiyeh bridge which slightly damaged a UNIFIL vehicle of the Tanzanian battalion," spokeswoman Yasmeena Bouziane said. "There were no casualties," Bouziane said, adding that a UNIFIL team has been sent out to the scene. UNIFIL said in a later statement that a military police vehicle "was hit this morning by a small charge of explosives located a few metres from the vehicle." "The explosion caused limited damage to the vehicle but no injuries to the occupants," the statement added. UNIFIL said it was awaiting the results of its investigation to determine the scope and intent of the explosion. A Lebanese military spokesman also reported the explosion on the bridge which lies on the main coastal road to the southern port city of Tyre. The army immediately cordoned off the area and diverted traffic from the bridge. UNIFIL has a position on the bridge, which crosses the Litani river, the northernmost line of deployment of the multinational force which was beefed up after last year's war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. June's car bombing against the Spanish contingent was the first fatal attack on UN peacekeepers since UNIFIL's mandate was expanded. The bombing, blamed on Sunni extremists rather than Hezbollah, was aimed primarily at damaging the stability of Lebanon, UNIFIL commander Major General Claudio Graziano said at the time. Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a audio message posted on the Internet last week, praised the June 24 attack as "a response against those invading Crusader forces who were occupying a beloved part of the land of Islam". UNIFIL counts about 13,500 troops along with 1,000 civilian employees, compared to only 2,000 before the July 12, 2006 outbreak of the devastating war in Lebanon. Lebanese political parties Hezbollah and AMAL were quick to condemn Monday's attack. AMAL and Hizbullah issued a joint statement "expressing our dismay for, and denunciation of the attack targeting international peacekeepers in the south." AMAL Parliamentarian Ali Khreis said the attack is "an act of terrorism targeting mainly residents of south Lebanon and their security and stability." Khreis also said the bombing "targeted peace doves (peacekeepers) that came from various countries to achieve peace and stability for south Lebanon." |
| Posted by:Fred |