LEBANON: UN WELCOMES ARREST OF TWO SUSPECTS IN TERRORIST ATTACK ON PEACEKEEPERS

LEBANON: UN WELCOMES ARREST OF TWO SUSPECTS IN TERRORIST ATTACK ON PEACEKEEPERS
New York, Aug 23 2007 2:00PM
The United Nations Interim Force for Lebanon (<"http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unifil/index.html">UNIFIL) today welcomed the reported progress in the investigation of the terrorist attack on its military police last month with the arrest of two suspects.

At the same time it stressed the importance of also identifying and arresting the perpetrators of a separate bomb attack on a UN patrol in southern Lebanon in June, when six Spanish peacekeepers were killed and two others seriously wounded.

There were no casualties in the July attack, when an explosion occurred while a UNIFIL vehicle was near Qasmiyeh Bridge.

The Security Council enhanced UNIFIL, first created in 1978 to confirm an Israeli withdrawal after an earlier incursion, to monitor the cessation of hostilities after last year's war between Israel and Hizbollah.

The Force now fields more than 13,000 troops out of its increased ceiling of 15,000. Israel has withdrawn from all Lebanese territory except for the northern part of the village of Ghajar which straddles the line separating the two sides.
2007-08-23 00:00:00.000

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