Was Israel Strike on UN post deliberate?

[zengrifter]

UN attack looks deliberate: Annan

From correspondents in Rome

July 26, 2006 08:33am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan today said he was "shocked" at Israel's "apparently deliberate targeting" of a UN post in Lebanon, in which up to four UN observers were killed.

Mr Annan described the strike as a "co-ordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post."

He said it took place "despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire."

"Furthermore, General Alain Pelligrini, the UN Force Commander in south Lebanon, had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular UN position from attack.

"I call on the Government of Israel to conduct a full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demand that any further attack on UN positions and personnel must stop.

"The names and nationalities of those killed are being withheld pending notification of their families. I extend sincere condolences to the families of our fallen peacekeepers."

[zengrifter]

Israel's Deliberate Attack
On UN Post New IDF Tactic
By Wayne Madsen
7-26-6

Israel's deliberate attack on a UN peacekeeping outpost in southern Lebanon represents a new departure in Israel's war against Lebanon. The attack is being called a mistake by the Israeli government and its Bush administration patrons. Unconfirmed US ambassador to the UN John Bolton is a known opponent of the UN system, having once called for the destruction of the top ten floors of the UN Secretariat Building in New York. The US and Israeli Missions to the UN, always working in complete lockstep, are now spinning that the Israeli attack on the UN outpost was because Hezbollah placed weapons near the facility. The last time UN peacekeepers were deliberately targeted was in 1994 when 10 Belgian blue helmets assigned to the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) were savagely murdered by rampaging Hutus after the shoot down of the presidential aircraft carrying the Hutu Presidents of Rwanda and Burundi by members of U.S.-supported Paul Kagame's Rwanda Patriotic Army forces. In 2005, Congolese guerrillas killed nine MONUC Bangladeshi and one Nepali UN peacekeepers in Ituri province. In 1976, two US Army soldiers operating under UN aegis were hacked to death by North Korean troops at the demilitarized zone's Panmunjom "truce village." In none of these cases was it proven that the assaults on the UN troops were carried out with the knowledge of the governments concerned. As UNIFIL peacekeepers were assisting in the evacuation of civilians from Lebanon, one of their headquarters in Khiyam, Lebanon was bombed by Israel, killing four blue helmets. The UN currently maintains peacekeepers around the world who have not faced deliberate attacks by UN member states. These include UN missions in Western Sahara (MINURSO), the Ethiopian-Eritrean border (UNMEE), Liberia (UNMIL), Burundi (ONUB), Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI), Sudan (UNMIS), Haiti (MINUSTAH), Kashmir (UNMOGIP), Cyprus (UNFICYP), Georgia-Abkhazia (UNOMIG), the Golan Heights (UNDOF), and Kosovo (UNMIK). UNOMIG is now under threat by a Georgian invasion force, backed by U.S. "advisers," that entered the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia. The Georgian military move, condemned by Russia, follows by a few weeks President Bush's meeting in Washington with Georgian neo-con President Mikhail Saakashvili. The Kodori Gorge is only 20 miles from Sukhumi, the Abkhazian capital. Any further movement by Georgian forces and their U.S. advisers risks a military confrontation with Russian troops in Abkhazia. http://waynemadsenreport.com