Israel bomb hits UN base in S. Lebanon, casualties

BEIRUT, July 25 (Reuters) An Israeli air strike today destroyed a base run by a United Nations observer force in southern Lebanon causing casualties, a U.N. spokesman said.

''One aerial bomb directly impacted the building and shelter in the base of the United Nations Observer Group in Lebanon in the area of Khiam,'' said Milos Strugar, spokesman for the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in the area.

''There are casualties among the observers. A UNIFIL dispatched rescue team which is on the spot is still unable to clear the rubble.'' Strugar declined to say if anyone was believed to have died, but it appears that the entire building collapsed while the U.N.

observers were in the shelter below.

''There were 14 other incidents of firing close to this position in the afternoon from the Israeli side and the firing continued during the rescue operation,'' he said.

An Israeli tank shell hit a UNIFIL position in southern Lebanon on Monday, wounding four Ghanaian soldiers. Shrapnel from tank shells fired from the Israeli side seriously wounded an Indian soldier last week and Hizbollah fire wounded an Italian observer on the border on Sunday.

In 1996, during Israel's Grapes of Wrath campaign in Lebanon, an Israeli jet bombed a UNIFIL compound in the southern village of Qana, killing 106 civilians sheltering inside.

UNIFIL was created in 1978 after Israel's first major invasion of southern Lebanon and has been there ever since. The United Nations has called for a bigger, better armed, more robust international force in the area.

Reuters SK VP0312