Olmert expresses 'deep regret' over UN deaths
In a phone call to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Israel’s prime minister expressed “deep regret” today over the killing of UN peacekeepers in an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon.
At least three UN observers were killed and a fourth is believed dead in the rubble of a UN post hit by an Israeli bomb yesterday.
Annan has said he believes the airstrike was “apparently deliberate".
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Annan today that the UN post was hit inadvertently.
“The prime minister expressed Israel’s deep regret over the mistaken killing of four UN peacekeepers,” Olmert said in a statement released by his office.
“The prime minister said he has instructed the military to carry out a thorough investigation and that the results will be shared with the UN secretary general.”
The prime minister expressed dismay over Annan’s initial comments. “It’s inconceivable for the UN to define an error as an apparently deliberate action,” the statement said.
Since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants began two weeks ago, there have been several dozen incidents of firing close to UN peacekeepers and observers, including direct hits on nine positions, some of them repeatedly, a UN official said.
As a result of thse attacks, 12 UN personnel have been killed or injured, UN officials said.
Yesterday’s bomb hit the building and shelter of the observer post in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as Unifil.
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