UN post in south Lebanon (Archive photos)
Photo: AP
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan
Photo: Reuters
4 UN observers killed by Israeli bomb
Missile fired by Israeli aircraft slams into UN post in south Lebanon killing 4
An Israeli air strike killed four United Nations military observers at their base in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, the United Nations said.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Israel to investigate the "apparently deliberate targeting" of the base.
"This coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post at Khiam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire," Annan said in a statement issued at UN headquarters in New York.
UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said at U.N. headquarters in New York: "I can confirm that the four military observers that came under attack in Khiam were killed in that attack. There are no further details for the moment".
A spokesman for the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon said rescue teams rushed to the peacekeeprs base, which appears to have collapsed while the UN observers were in the shelter.
"One aerial bomb directly impacted the building and shelter in the base of the United Nations Observer Group in Lebanon in the area of Khiam," said spokesman Milos Strugar.
"A UNIFIL dispatched rescue team which is on the spot is still unable to clear the rubble."
"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 said.
In Jerusalem, an Israeli army spokeswoman said the military was investigating the report.
And in Rome, a US State Department official said Israel told the United States that the air strike that hit the UN base was an accident.
"It was a terrible tragedy. we have heard from the Israelis that it was an accident," said the official, who is in Rome with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for an international conference on Lebanon. He had no further details.
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 Hizbollah fire wounded an Italian observer on the border on Sunday.
In 1996, during Israel's Grapes of Wrath campaign in Lebanon, an Israeli jet bombed a UNIFIL compound in the southern village of Qana, killing 106 civilians sheltering inside.
UNIFIL was created in 1978 after Israel's first major invasion of southern Lebanon and has been there ever since. The United Nations has called for a bigger, better armed, more robust international force in the area.
