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Lebanon blast 'kills UN soldiers' | Lebanon blast 'kills UN soldiers' |
(40 minutes later) | |
Four United Nations peacekeepers have been killed and several others wounded by an explosion in southern Lebanon, security officials say. | |
The blast badly damaged two vehicles transporting Spanish peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) near the border with Israel. | |
It is unclear if the soldiers were targeted or hit unexploded ordinance left over from last summer's war. | |
Cluster bombs and mines have killed 30 people in the area in the last year. | |
But radical groups in Lebanon have also threatened to attack the UN peacekeepers, says the BBC's Kim Ghattas. | |
For the last five weeks, the Lebanese army has been battling militants from the Fatah al-Islam group near the northern city of Tripoli, who are apparently inspired by al-Qaeda. | |
Authorities have said that Fatah al-Islam militants who have been arrested and interrogated have confessed there was a plan to attack the UN, our correspondent adds. | |
Multinational force | |
Sunday's explosion took place near the southern town of Khiyam in the area of operation of UN peacekeepers. | |
A convoy of armoured UN vehicles from a Spanish battalion was hit by the blast. | |
"A vehicle hit a mine or booby-trap in the Marjayoun-Khiam valley," a Unifil colonel told the AFP news agency. | "A vehicle hit a mine or booby-trap in the Marjayoun-Khiam valley," a Unifil colonel told the AFP news agency. |
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 11,000 UN peacekeepers deployed in the area, including French, Spanish and Indian soldiers. |