Original source URL: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1084162006 Wed 26 Jul 2006 UN accuses Israelis of deliberate attack BEN LYNFIELD IN JERUSALEM AN ISRAELI air raid in south Lebanon killed four UN military observers yesterday, in an attack that Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary-general, said was "apparently deliberate". The four observers were part of the UN peacekeeping mission, UN and Lebanese officials said. Their deaths came as senior Hezbollah figures admitted they had not predicted the strength of Israel's response to cross-border raids, but vowed to step up their attacks into Israel. Speaking after yesterday's attack on the UN site, Milos Strugar, a spokesman for the UNIFIL peacekeeping force, 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 Khiyam." Mr Strugar said attacks had continued in the area as rescuers attempted to reach the wounded. "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 added. In a statement issued at UN headquarters in New York, Mr Annan said: "I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli defence forces of a UN observer post in southern Lebanon. "This co-ordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long-established and clearly marked UN post at Khiyam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by prime minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire," Mr Annan added. UNIFIL was created in 1978 after Israel's first major invasion of southern Lebanon and has been there ever since. 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 Hezbollah fire wounded an Italian observer on the border on Sunday. In Jerusalem, an Israeli army spokeswoman said the military was investigating the report of yesterday's deaths. Those killed included observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, a senior Lebanese military official said. Reports also emerged from the Israeli army yesterday that it had killed the "senior Hezbollah militant", Abu Jafr. The claims came as Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, suggested the group had miscalculated Israel's response to its raids. "The truth is - let me say this clearly - we didn't even expect [this] response... that [Israel] would exploit this operation for this big war against us," said Mr Komati. But last night Hezbollah's principal leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, vowed his fighters would now begin firing rockets deeper into Israel, beyond the northern port of Haifa. And the Shiite cleric claimed Israel's two-week-long offensive was linked to a US-Israeli plan for "a new Middle East", a term used repeatedly by the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, on her visit to the region. Earlier yesterday, Israel vowed to pursue its war against Hezbollah and establish a no-go zone for the guerrillas in southern Lebanon until an international force arrives. A total of 418 people in Lebanon and 42 Israelis have been killed in a conflict that erupted after Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July. Yesterday, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, warned that the conflict could sweep through the Middle East like "a hurricane". -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Blogs: cyberjournal forum http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/ Achieving real democracy http://harmonization.blogspot.com/ for readers of ETM http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/ Community Empowerment http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/ Blogger made easy http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html
