14 UNIFIL troops injured in protest.

Byline: Patrick Galey

Summary: Fourteen peacekeeping troops were injured Saturday when scores of protestors confronted soldiers near the southern village of Khirbet Silim. Soldiers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) were accosted by approximately 100 residents attempting to impede the investigation.

BEIRUT: Fourteen peacekeeping troops were injured Saturday when scores of protestors confronted soldiers near the southern village of Khirbet Silim. Soldiers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) were accosted by approximately 100 residents attempting to impede the investigation into the explosions at a suspected arms cache in the south of the country on Tuesday.-

In response to the incident, UNIFIL spokesperson Yasmina Bouzaine said: "During the course of the ongoing coordinated UNIFIL-LAF investigation into the explosions in Khirbet Silim, while UNIFIL and LAF troops were at a location one kilometer from the site in order to verify elements related to the explosion, approximately 100 persons gathered and attempted to hamper the activity."

Protestors hurled rocks at the convoy, injuring 14 UNIFIL soldiers and damaging several of the investigation team's vehicles, including an ambulance.

"The amassed population threw stones and confronted the UNIFIL personnel on the ground," said Bouziane.

"As the gathering grew, both UNIFIL and LAF deployed additional personnel on the ground in order to contain the situation, and prevent any further escalation.

She added that one patrol, surrounded by protestors, fired warning shots into the air, in order "to clear its exit path."

Bouziane told The Daily Star the incident was "more of a demonstration than an attack" and the situation had "resolved itself."

A LAF statement, released late Saturday night, said it regretted the injuries caused to UNIFIL troops during the altercation. It said that during the investigation, "confusion arose among locals inciting people's reactions," adding that "the situation was quickly dealt with and peace was restored. An investigation was also immediately launched to identify the cause of the confusion.

"Army units and UN forces will continue to cooperate tightly to enforce Resolution 1701," the statement said.

Media reports on Saturday said protesters had blocked the main road between Bir al-Salasel and Khirbet Silim and burned tires after confronting peacekeeping forces. Minor scuffles and more stone throwing occurred when the patrol conducted a raid on a property in the area of Khirbet Silim-Dabshe, according to the National News Agency.

The explosions at Khirbet Silim, a village northeast of Tibnin and about 20 kilometers north of the tense Lebanon-Israel border, are thought to have occurred at a weapons depot. Media reports last week suggested the arms cache belonged to Hizbullah, an allegation as yet uncorroborated by the Shiite group.

As many as 30 people are thought to have been injured in the blasts, according to a security source.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Bouziane said that the storing of weapons close to the Blue Line - the boundary of Israeli military withdrawal from Lebanon - constituted a "serious violation" of UN Resolution 1701, drafted to end Israel's devastating 34-day war on Lebanon in 2006.

She stressed that all parties acknowledge "the provision that there should be no presence of unauthorized assets or weapons in the area of operation between the Litani River and the Blue Line."

The Khirbet Silim protest came one day after residents of Kfar Shuba, a highly disputed area of land occupied by Israel following the 1967 war - planted Lebanese and Hizbullah flags on the Israeli side of a newly-erected barbed wire fence.

Israeli soldiers removed the flags, planted with the blessing of Bint Jbiel MP Qassem Hashem in protest against alleged Israel violations of Resolution 1701 before UNIFIL troops requested the protestors evacuate the area.

Media reports on Sunday quoted an Israeli security source as saying Tel Aviv considered the incident an attempt to divert attention away from the explosions at Khirbet Silim.

An Israeli army official said on Sunday that it would shoot anyone who attempted to cross the Blue Line into Israel, whether armed or not.

"Israel won't allow such actions to be repeated given that there are violations of Security Council Resolution 1701," the source was quoted as saying. - Additional reporting by Carol Rizk

Berri complains of Israel's violations

BEIRUT: Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri slammed during a meeting on Saturday with the commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Major General Claudio Graziano Israel's perpetual violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

Sources close to Berri told the State-run National News Agency (NNA) that Berri also complained about Israel's continued occupation of the northern part of the border village of Ghajar during the meeting which took place at the speaker's residence in the southern town of Msaileh.

According to the sources, Berri called on the UNIFIL delegation to intervene to end Israeli violations.

Berri also told the visiting delegation that resistance was a "national necessity to defend Lebanon until Israel's withdrawal from all occupied Lebanese territories."

The meeting also discussed Friday's incident in the occupied Kfar Shuba Hills, where dozens of Lebanese briefly took over an unmanned Israeli observation post.

Berri told the UNIFIL delegation that Israel's attempts to appropriate land at Kfar Shuba Hills and its continued occupation of northern Ghajar as attempts to change the geography of the area. - The Daily Star

Copyright 2009, The Daily Star. All rights reserved.

Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company