UN air strike was "apparently deliberate"

Wednesday July 26, 2006
Guardian Unlimited


UN
personnel carry the body of one of the UN military observers who was
killed by an Israeli bombardment of the southern Lebanese town of
Khiyam. Photograph: Lotfallah Daher/AP
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Olmert: killing UN monitors a mistake

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...According to a detailed timeline of the incident provided by an
unidentified UN officer and reported by CNN, the first bomb exploded
around 200 metres from the post at 1.20pm (11.20am BST) yesterday.

Unifil
observers then telephoned their designated contact with the Israeli
military, who assured them the attacks would stop. In the following
hours, nine more bombs fell close to the post, each one followed by a
call to the Israeli military, the UN officer said.

The main
Unifil base in the town of Naqoura lost contact with the post at
7.40pm, seemingly the time when the post received a direct hit.

The UN office in Naqoura could not be contacted today.

The
four monitors came from Austria, Canada, China and Finland. The Chinese
foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing, said today he was saddened by the news
and that it showed "we should try harder to call on the parties to be
restrained and to be calm and restore the peace process of the Middle
East immediately".

The 2,000-strong Unifil force, which sits on
the Israel-Lebanon border, has suffered dozens of attacks and direct
hits in two weeks of conflict. Israel is suspicious of the force and
wants it beefed up with an international stabilisation force involving
up to 20,000 troops.

Earlier Mr Olmert telephoned Mr Annan to
express his "deep regrets" over the deaths of the UN monitors, the
Israeli prime minister's office said.

Mr Annan said last night
the air strike was "apparently deliberate" and other UN officials said
the attacks on the UN bunker had continued during a rescue effort.