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AFP: French UN peacekeeper killed by Israeli fire in Hezbollah clashes
 A French UN peacekeeper was killed in southern Lebanon by Israeli fire in cross-border clashes between Israel and the Hezbollah militia, UN officials said. Good shooting, Avner. The Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia also claimed to have killed an Israeli soldier in the fighting, but there was no confimation of this from the Israeli side. The French UN peacekeeper's patrol was hit by shrapnel from an Israeli round near the disputed Shebaa Farms area, Lebanese police said, amid a series of retaliatory air raids triggered by Hezbollah fire. A spokesman for the UN force in Lebanon said that the French officer, working with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) had been killed while a Swedish observer and their Lebanese driver were wounded. The spokesman, Milos Srwjer, said the men had been killed by fire from the "Israeli side of the Blue Line" that the United Nations drew up to serve as the border between Lebanon and Israel. He added however that the Israeli fire had been provoked by "shots from the Lebanese side" of the Blue Line. Al-Manar television, the mouthpiece of Hezbollah, That's brutally honest. Must be a translation error. reported that "Our fighters blew up a very powerful charge in the path of an armoured vehicle near an Israeli position known as Zebdin in the occupied Shebaa Farms." "Four Apache helicopters flew in to evacuate four victims, a dead officer and three wounded soldiers," it added, referring to purported Israeli casualties. Interesting tone, given that a Frenchman died. Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2005-01-09 |
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