Middle East News
Bomb kills UN peacekeeper in south Lebanon
Sep 3, 2008, 17:25 GMT
Beirut - A Belgian peacekeeper with the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) died Wednesday while dismantling an unexploded bomb, Lebanese security sources said.
Another Belgian was injured in the incident near Aitaroun in southern Lebanon, the sources said.
UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane confirmed the incident but refused to give the nationality of the peacekeeper until his family has been informed.
'An investigation is under way,' she said.
There are 370 Belgians in the 15,000-strong UNIFIL force, which was set up in 1978 to help the Lebanese army patrol a border zone in the south under a UN Security Council mandate.
Last week, the UN Security Council extended UNIFIL's mandate for another year until August 2009.
Wednesday's death is the first UNIFIL fatality since June, when a Spanish peacekeeper died in a road accident.
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