4 killed when Israel bombs U.N. post

[idontwantaname]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060725/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_fighting_un_observers


BEIRUT, Lebanon - A U.N. observer post was hit by an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon Tuesday, killing four peacekeepers, U.N. officials said.

A bomb directly hit the building and shelter of an Indian patrol base from the observer force in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.

<snip>

Struger also said there were 14 other incidents of firing close to this position from the Israeli side Tuesday afternoon. "The firing continued even during the rescue operation," he said.

Since Israel launched a massive military offensive against Lebanon and Hezbollah guerrillas July 12, an international civilian employee working with UNIFIL and his wife have been killed in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas in the southern port city of Tyre.

Five UNIFIL soldiers and one military observer have also been wounded, Struger said.

[regnaD kciN]

1. Accident...?

I would like to think so. However, if you've read web editions of Israeli papers over the past few years, it's hard to miss that there are those who consider the U.N. to be "anti-Israel and biased toward the Arabs."

:shrug:

Hopefully, it won't turn out to be the work of some army officer who shared that view, and didn't bother checking his target too carefully.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. I doubt it was accidental...

It was a co-ordinated missile and artillery attack. I also doubt the Israeli govt wanted this to happen as it pissed off a whole bunch of people like the Chinese govt, and for some who haven't been too opposed to Lebanese civilians dying, the line in the sand may be international peace-keepers...

I was just lurking at another forum where this is being discussed, and I saw one person respond to this news by posting a picture of Kofi Annan and the guy from Hezbollah and calling them great friends in some perverted attempt to justify the killings. Made me want to puke...

[eyl]

6. Isn't that contradictory?

i.e. "it wasn't accidental"/"the Israeli government didn't want this to happen"?

[Violet_Crumble]

7. I don't think I stated it too well...

Here's the hopefully less contradictory and less concise version:

First up, I doubt very much that the Israeli govt planned or wanted a UN post to be hit. To me it would be a self-defeating action, as the international outrage caused would be a major-league headache, and after assuring the UN recently that their peace-keepers would be avoided, Olmert now has the aftermath of those deaths to deal with...

Why it's not contradictory is that while I think (this is all supposition from me, of course) the Israeli govt was genuine in not wanting UN posts to be targetted, I don't think that same wish was there further down the line, and I think someone further down the food-chain with a mindset of UN = biased terrorist supporters could have intentionally set this in motion. But having said that, I don't know how the military chain of command works and whether that's a viable suspicion or not....

[eyl]

8. It's possible, of course

but it seems pretty unlikely to me, especially if both artillery and air strikes were used, as alleged above. Oh, you might be able to do that if you had enough of the intelligence staff cooperating, or alternatively if you had enough of both the artillery and air coordination staff cooperating, but absent a massive conspiracy I don't see how you could cover your tracks, and I don't see a senior officer risking it just to take potshots at the UN. A junior officer might be able to do it by falsifying a recon report, but again, covering your tracks is a problem.

[shain from kane]

2. Shades of the U.S.S. Liberty. From Wikipedia ---

"The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a U.S. Navy intelligence ship, USS Liberty, in international waters about 12.5 nautical miles (23 km) from the coast of the Sinai Peninsula, north of El Arish, by Israeli fighter planes and torpedo boats on June 8, 1967.

It occurred during the Six-Day War, a conflict between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. The attack killed 34 U.S. servicemen and wounded at least 173. The attack was the second deadliest against a U.S. Naval vessel since the end of World War II, surpassed only by the Iraqi Exocet missile attack on the USS Stark on May 17, 1987.

Both the Israeli and American governments have conducted multiple inquiries into the incident, and have issued reports concluding that the attack was a tragic mistake, caused by confusion about the identity of the USS Liberty. These conclusions have been challenged from several fronts, most notably by an organization of Liberty survivors, as well as by some former high-ranking officials in the United States government. The matter is considered closed for purposes of Israeli-American relations, but remains controversial in the public debate."

EDited to add reference.

[4freethinking]

3. It seems Israel does not care if they

are UN observers. Should anyone be surprised? The UN compound in Qana 1996, a couple years back British UN worker Ian Hook, Indian UN peacekeepers in 1967, UN Representative Count Folke Bernadotte in 1948. Don't worry Israel has our veto by default(AIPAC does not give their money for nothing) and be assured that our Israel centric/double standard foreign policy will be maintained. Israel holds the UN in contempt not with just words but with actions.

[MrPrax]

4. Deliberate and Pre-Mediated...

Israeli strike 'kills four UN observers' as Rice leaves

FOUR UN observers were reported to have been killed yesterday when their post was hit by an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon.

"One aerial bomb directly impacted the building and shelter in the base of the United Nations Observer Group in Lebanon in the area of Khiam," said Milos Strugar, a spokesman for the UNIFIL peacekeeping force. He declined to say how many had died, but confirmed there had been casualties. Mr Strugar said air attacks had continued in the area as rescuers attempted to reach the wounded.

The strike came shortly after Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, left Israel following two days of half-hearted diplomacy.

Scotsman



Canadian reported among 4 UN observers killed
(AP-CP)

BEIRUT (AP-CP) — An Israeli bomb destroyed a UN observer post on the border in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing four peacekeepers, a UN official said. One of the victims is believed to be Canadian.

UN chief Kofi Annan said Israel appeared to have struck the site deliberately.

The dead included observers from Canada, Austria, China and Finland, a senior Lebanese military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information to the media.

TorStar

Hezbollah, Hamas and Israel: Everything You Need To Know
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

"...The killing got so bad that even Ronald Reagan awoke from his slumbers and called Tel Aviv to tell Israel to stop. Sharon gave the White House the finger by bombing Beirut at the precise times -- 2.42 and 3.38 -- of two UN resolutions calling for a peaceful settlement on the matter of Palestine.

When the dust settled over the rubble, Israel bunkered down several miles inside Lebanese sovereign territory, which it illegally occupied, in defiance of all UN resolutions, for years, supervising a brutal local militia and running its own version of Abu Graibh, the torture center at the prison of Al-Khiam...."

CounterPunch