UN force vows to pursue Lebanon task despite bomb

MARJAYOUN – UN peacekeepers will pursue their mission in south Lebanon despite a car bomb attack that killed six members of a Spanish battalion, the UNIFIL force’s commander said yesterday.

The blast that hit a UNIFIL patrol on Sunday was the first deadly attack on the UN force since it was expanded after last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. “It’s not an attack against Lebanon and UNIFIL only, but against the stability of the region.This attack has made UNIFIL more committed to fulfil its mission in southern Lebanon,” Major-General Claudio Graziano, who commands the 13 000-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon, said in a statement.The bombing presents another challenge to the Western-backed Beirut government, locked in a paralysing political conflict with the Hezbollah-led opposition and shaken by a series of bombings, as well as battles with al Qaeda-inspired militants.Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s anti-Syrian cabinet decided to ask the UN Security Council to prolong UNIFIL’s mandate, which expires in August, for another 12 months.In a report to the council this month, UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen expressed alarm at reports by the Lebanese government and others about weapons smuggling across the Syrian border.Damascus has denied any systematic transfers.A UN mission to assess monitoring the Syrian-Lebanese border is due to report at the end of June.Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso flew to Lebanon to collect the bodies of the soldiers killed by the bomb that blew up on a road between the towns of Khiyam and Marjayoun.Nampa-Reuters”It’s not an attack against Lebanon and UNIFIL only, but against the stability of the region.This attack has made UNIFIL more committed to fulfil its mission in southern Lebanon,” Major-General Claudio Graziano, who commands the 13 000-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon, said in a statement.The bombing presents another challenge to the Western-backed Beirut government, locked in a paralysing political conflict with the Hezbollah-led opposition and shaken by a series of bombings, as well as battles with al Qaeda-inspired militants.Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s anti-Syrian cabinet decided to ask the UN Security Council to prolong UNIFIL’s mandate, which expires in August, for another 12 months.In a report to the council this month, UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen expressed alarm at reports by the Lebanese government and others about weapons smuggling across the Syrian border.Damascus has denied any systematic transfers.A UN mission to assess monitoring the Syrian-Lebanese border is due to report at the end of June.Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso flew to Lebanon to collect the bodies of the soldiers killed by the bomb that blew up on a road between the towns of Khiyam and Marjayoun.Nampa-Reuters