June 25, 2007
Six Spanish Soldiers Killed in Lebanon
Madrid
Six soldiers of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were killed
and two wounded in a car-bomb attack, the Spanish news agency EFE
said.
Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said Sunday that it was
a "premeditated attack". An earlier theory that the troops were
killed by a mine blast was ruled out.
Alonso added that the bombing occurred in southern Lebanon. Five of
the soldiers were killed on the spot and one died later in the
hospital.
UNIFIL commander Italian Gen. Claudio Graziano called the incident
"the most serious ... since last summer", when the UN troops were
stationed in Lebanon after the undeclared war between Israel and
Hezbollah.
Lebanese military and police sources told EFE the bomb that killed
the soldiers was hidden inside a white Renault Rapid with a fake
number plate.
They said that pieces of the vehicle were found in the corpses and
the bodies of those wounded in the blast.
Alonso said that three of the dead soldiers were of Colombian origin
and three were Spaniards.
The three Colombian-born soldiers were identified as Jefferson
Vargas Moya, 21, Jackson Castaņo Abadia, 20, and Juan Erickson
Posada, also 20.
The three Spanish soldiers were Jonathan Galea Garcia, 18, Juan
Vidoria Diaz, 20 and Manuel David Portas Ruiz, 19.
A resident of Jiam who spoke on condition of anonymity told EFE that
he saw the same Renault Rapid driving around in town along with a
Mercedes Saturday and that something about it caught his attention,
but the cars disappeared quickly.
Lebanon's official ANN news agency reported that the explosive
charge was a very large one and was set off by remote control.
The huge blast could be heard several kilometres away from Sahel -
where it occurred - to Derdara, adjacent to the city of Jiam, the
largest urban zone under Spanish control in southern Lebanon.
Immediately after the attack, Spanish members of UNIFIL, aided by
Lebanese soldiers, cordoned off the area and did not allow access to
anyone, not even journalists or photographers.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud condemned the attack against the
Spanish troops.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called Spanish Prime Minister
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to express his condolences over the
deaths of the soldiers.
The Shiite militia group Hezbollah, meanwhile, condemned the attack
on the Spanish peacekeepers and called it "a suspicious act that
hurts the residents of southern Lebanon".
Spain sent peacekeepers to Lebanon last year to help implement UN
Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the undeclared
July-August 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Of the 27,000 UN peacekeeping troops stationed in Lebanon, about
1,100 are Spanish.
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