Explosion targets UNIFIL, one dead, three wounded

Описание: (27 May 2011) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of destroyed armoured vehicle against barrier and soldiers on the scene
2. United Nations troops (blue helmets) walking past
3. Close-up of blood stain and piece of metal from bomb blast on roadside barrier
4. Close-up of blood stain
5. Destroyed armoured vehicle
6. Close-up of armoured vehicle's engine
7. Various of the bomb scene, investigators and crowds behind tape barriers
8. Crater left by the bomb blast in surface of the road
9. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Abu Tony, passer by
"A UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon) convoy was hit by a road side bomb as it was passing by here".
10. Destroyed vehicle
11. Close-up of number plate
12. Wide of crowds and destroyed vehicle
STORYLINE
A roadside bomb ripped through a convoy of United Nations (UN) vehicles carrying Italian peacekeepers in the south of the country on Friday, killing one of the soldiers and wounding several others, officials said.
Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Maurizio Massari, confirmed the peacekeeper's death and said the blast hit a vehicle carrying six Italian soldiers in the southern port city of Sidon.
Lebanese security and military officials, however, said six UN peacekeepers and two civilians were wounded.
One of the peacekeepers was in serious condition, the officials said.
The UN peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon), is deployed in southern Lebanon to monitor the border with Israel.
Neeraj Singh, a UNIFIL spokesman, said "we have reports of some casualties of UNIFIL peacekeepers."
The army sealed off the area with yellow tape and was keeping journalists away.
But a blackened white UNIFIL jeep could be seen, its top and left side destroyed.
The last such incident was in January 2008, when a roadside bomb struck a UN vehicle travelling along the coastal highway south of Beirut, slightly wounding two peacekeepers.
The deadliest attack was in June 2007, when a bomb hit an armoured personnel carrier near the Israeli border and killed six Spanish peacekeepers.
No group has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks targeting UNIFIL.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, expressing condolences in a statement, praised the UNIFIL mission, saying it makes a "decisive contribution to the stability to one of the most sensitive Middle Eastern areas."
Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati condemned the explosion in a phone call to the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Michael Williams.
The explosion came the same day that UNIFIL commemorates the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers to honour colleagues who lost their lives
in the line of duty.

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