From: UPI
Subject: U.N. peacekeeper killed in Lebanon
Reply-To: ayman@umich.edu
Organization: United Press International
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 17:51:26 GMT
X-Note: This article was automatically cross-posted to soc.culture.lebanon

[ Article cross-posted without permission ]

	TYRE, Lebanon (UPI) -- A Nepalese U.N. peacekeeping soldier and a pro-
Iranian Hezbollah fighter were killed Thursday as Hezbollah forces
battled both U.N. and Israeli troops, Lebanese police and a U.N.
spokesman said.
	Three other U.N. soldiers and were wounded in the fighting, which
apparently was triggered by a U.N. attack on a Hezbollah ambulance that
refused to stop at a U.N. checkpoint, the officials said.
	The troops of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon were hit when
Hezbollah shelled three UNIFIL positions in Kafra, 10 miles east of
Tyre, and the nearby village of Srobbine, UNIFIL spokesman Timor Goksel
said.
	UNIFIL commanders made immediate contact with the Hezbollah
leadership in Beirut and southern Lebanon ``to settle this problem,''
another UNIFIL spokesman in Tyre said.
	The shelling was among a series of attacks that came a few hours
after Israeli warplanes blasted a Hezbollah base in the village of
Siddiqine, 8 miles east of Tyre.
	Sources of the Muslim Resistance Movement, the military arm of
Hezbollah, said one its squads ambushed an Israeli patrol in a valley
located between the villages of Yater and Kafra, 10 miles east of Tyre,
at 1:15 p.m.
	A firefight broke out during which the Muslim guerrillas used
machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the sources said. No
immediate details on casualties or damage in the fight were reported.
	Shortly afterward, Nepalese peacekeepers opened fire on a Hezbollah
ambulance trying to cross their checkpoint near the village of Kafra,
Lebanese police said.
	The ambulance driver, identified as Jawad, died after being hit by
five bullets in the chest, the sources said. Another Hezbollah member
was wounded.
	The ambulance apparently was moving to evacuate casualties from the
nearby valley where Israelis and Muslim guerrillas were still fighting,
the sources said.
	The sources said Hezbollah members apparently refused to allow the
Nepalese soldiers to search the ambulance, triggering the shooting.
	In retaliation, guerrillas believed to be Hezbollah members opened
fire on a UNIFIL armored personnel carrier of the French battalion on
the road leading to Yater, a UNIFIL source said.
	The vehicle was hit and damaged but no casualties were reported, the
source said.
	The source said the guerrillas also fired machine guns and rocket-
propelled grenades on a Nepalese position in Yater. The peacekeepers
returned fire ``in self-defense,'' he said. There was no immediate word
on casualties.
	The UNIFIL source said the attacks were ``linked to what happened
earlier at the Nepalese checkpoint with the Hezbollah.''
	The UNIFIL spokesman in Tyre said his command ``regretted the
incident and the killing of the Hezbollah member.''
	The Israel Army said earlier Thursday its Air Force jets overnight 
``attacked a Hezbollah terrorist target'' near the village of Siddiqine,
8 miles east of the southern port city of Tyre.
	``The jets hit the target used by Hezbollah guerrillas as a base to
launch attacks against the Israeli forces,'' the Army said. ``All planes
returned safely to their base.''
	Hezbollah said in a communique released in Beirut that the Israeli
air strike ``targeted a house belonging to Youssef Balhas,'' causing
only material damage. Balhas, his wife and children were out of the
house at the time of the raid, Hezbollah said.
	Israel on Wednesday threatened harsh retaliation if Hezbollah
fighters resume firing Soviet-made Katyusha rockets on northern Israel
and attacking Israeli positions inside Israel's self-proclaimed 
``security zone'' in southern Lebanon.
	Lebanese sources said they feared Israel might launch a military
operation to extend the border zone with the aim of neutralizing
Hezbollah.
	Violence mounted after Israeli warplanes on Sunday raided Hezbollah
positions in the Ein El Tineh village in the southwestern Bekaa Valley,
killing four guerrillas and wounding six others.
	Israel established the ``security zone'' in 1985 with the aim of
stopping attacks on its northern border towns. The 9-mile zone is
patrolled by some 1,000 Israeli servicemen and the SLA militiamen.
	U.N. sources affirmed this week that Israel dispatched hundreds of
tank-backed troops and brought 64 cannons to the three sectors of the
border enclave.

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