Suicide bomber kills 5 UN soldiers in Lebanon

Khiyam (Lebanon), June 25: A suicide car bomber ''most likely'' killed five Spanish UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon today, a police source said. It was the first deadly attack on the UN force since last year's Israel-Hezbollah war.

The source said a mangled car was found at the scene with human remains inside. Security sources said earlier the blast was caused by a roadside bomb detonated by remote control.

The attack hit two UN vehicles on a main road near the southern town of Khiyam. Witnesses said ammunition in a UN troop carrier had exploded after the initial blast.

Security sources said five Spaniards had been killed and two wounded. Spain's defence ministry confirmed four had died.

A spokeswoman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) confirmed there had been casualties but gave no details. ''It is suspected that the incident was caused by an explosive device,'' she said. An investigation was under way.

There was no immediate claim for the attack.

A spokesman for Fatah al-Islam, an al Qaeda-inspired Sunni group, which has been battling Lebanese troops in a Palestinian refugee camp in the north for the past five weeks, accused UNIFIL on June 2 of bombarding the camp. UNIFIL denied it.

UNIFIL had gone on higher alert since the Nahr al-Bared fighting began. A few days later, a small bomb was found and defused in Tyre, near a beach resort frequented by UNIFIL personnel.

Last Sunday two rockets fired from south Lebanon landed in Israel, causing no casualties. Hezbollah denied involvement.

UNIFIL's previous commander said this year that Sunni Islamist militants were his biggest security worry.

The Shi'ite Hezbollah group, which has had no visible armed presence in the south since the July-August 2006 war, denounced what it called an attack aimed at destabilising the country, saying it ''hurts the people of the south and of Lebanon''.

Lebanese politicians flocked to condemn the bombing, which Saad al-Hariri, Sunni leader of the ruling Western-backed coalition, described as ''a grave terrorist attack''.

Israel expressed sorrow at the killing. ''Israel has been in direct contact both with UNIFIL and with the government of Spain and we have offered any and all assistance required,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

A 13,000-strong UNIFIL force patrols the south and Lebanese coastal waters. Spain has 1,100 troops serving in Lebanon.

UNIFIL has suffered 260 fatalities since it was first set up after an Israeli invasion in 1978. The dead include 250 troops, two military observers, four international and four local staff.

Reuters>