UN says Israel attacked convoy after approving it

BEIRUT, Aug 12 (Reuters) UN peacekeepers today denied Israel's assertion that an evacuation convoy it attacked in southern Lebanon had set off without permission, saying the UN had sought and been granted safe passage on a named route.

Israeli forces launched an air strike on the convoy yesterday, killing a Lebanese Red Cross worker and six other civilians and wounding 36 people, among them members of the Lebanese security forces, and destroying a number of vehicles.

''It's against the Geneva conventions, attacking civilians and vehicles with Red Cross symbols,'' the head of the Lebanese Red Cross, George Kettani, today told Reuters.

Some 3,000 civilians and 350 Lebanese soldiers and policemen were in the convoy, which was attacked near the village of Kefraya in the eastern Bekaa Valley, 36 km (22 miles) north of Marjayoun.

The Israeli army confirmed it had attacked the convoy and said it suspected wrongly that Hizbollah guerrillas were smuggling weapons in the vehicles. It said a military inquiry concluded the convoy had been denied permission to move but had set out anyway.

The UNIFIL peacekeepers denied this, stating that UNIFIL had asked the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for safe passage. ''Israeli forces informed UNIFIL that they agreed to such a request,'' a UNIFIL statement said.

''UNIFIL informed the IDF about the convoy and its planned route to Beirut'', the statement added.

The convoy was organised at the Lebanese authorities' request to evacuate Lebanese security forces from Marjayoun, which Israeli forces had occupied on Thursday, UNIFIL said.

Civilians from Marjayoun in 365 vehicles joined the convoy at a nearby village, the peacekeepers added.

Israeli air strikes on roads and vehicles in southern Lebanon and other parts of the country have stopped many civilians wanting to flee the south from leaving.

An official UNIFIL source told Reuters: ''The IDF was informed about the civilian vehicles by us and also have their own soldiers on the ground who monitored the convoy until it left.'' Israeli forces pushed into the Marjayoun area on Thursday as part of a month-old campaign to drive Hizbollah guerrillas away from the border and stop their rocket attacks on north Israel.

The Israeli military said it had put a curfew on non-authorised vehicles moving south of the Litani river, which flows just north of Marjayoun. Kefraya is 6 km north of the Litani, which runs southwest across Lebanon.

REUTERS DKA RAI2136