By Xinhua
Beirut : Lebanese Premier Fouad Seniora denounced a roadside bomb attack on UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon Tuesday, local Naharnet news website reported.
Seniora, on a visit to the United Arab Emirates, called UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and relayed to him “the condemnation of the Lebanese government of the crime that targeted Irish peacekeepers of the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL),” said the report.
The explosion occurred in the coastal town of Rmaileh near the southern city of Sidon, slightly wounding two Irish peacekeepers.
The official National News Agency (NNA) said Seniora stressed to Ban on “full cooperation with UNIFIL in investigating this crime with the aim of exposing the culprits.”
He told the UN chief that the Lebanese authorities are also carrying out an investigation with the aim of “identifying the side responsible for launching rockets across the southern border with the aim of destabilizing the south,” the report added.
The UN chief expressed appreciation for “the existing cooperation with the Lebanese Government,” the report added.
Tuesday’s explosion is the third such attack targeting the UN peace troops in Lebanon since the UNIFIL was boosted after the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
On June 24, 2007, a roadside bomb targeting a Spanish convoy for the UNIFIL exploded in southern Lebanon, leaving six UN peacekeepers dead.
On July 16, another roadside bomb detonated in southern Lebanon, apparently targeting a UNIFIL vehicle, but caused no casualties.
Currently, about 13,500 peacekeepers serving with the UNIFI Lare deployed on the ground between the Litani River and the UN-drawn Blue Line.