Lebanese villagers in two assaults on UN patrols - Summary

Thu, 16 Dec 2010

Beirut - French United Nations peacekeepers were assaulted Thursday by villagers in southern Lebanon in two separate incidents, prompting the country's army to intervene, a security official said.

Residents of the Hezbollah-controlled village of Tayri, east of the southern port city of Tyre, assaulted a French UNIFIL patrol, the source said.

The incident began when some of the villagers clashed with the patrol while it was conducting a GPS demarcation and tried to snatch the equipment they were using away from them, the source added.

The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) came to the scene and resolved the situation by taking the patrol's computer at the request of the villagers.

The Tayri incident came few hours after residents from the southern village of Hariss protest when a French UNIFIL patrol was taking pictures in the area.

UNIFIL's general command alerted the Lebanese Army, which arrived at the scene to handle the incident, he added.

A UN source said the UNIFIL command " was investigating both incidents and they are in contact with the Lebanese army command."

Local residents said the attack against the patrol came as a result of the unit's increasingly "provocative" and "suspicious" behavior, taking what they described as "sensitive photographs."

Similar attacks took place in July between Lebanese villagers and French peacekeepers.

The repeated assaults have prompted a string of meetings in the past months between high-level Lebanese officials and army officers, UNIFIL commanders and the UN Special Envoy to Lebanon Michael Williams.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/358564,un-patrols-summary.html.