March 31 (Reuters) - Initial findings of a probe into the deaths of two Indonesian peacekeepers in southern Lebanon point to a roadside explosion striking their convoy, the United Nations peacekeeping chief said on Tuesday.
The two peacekeepers with the UNIFIL force were killed on Monday near Bani Hayyan in south Lebanon and two other soldiers were wounded in the blast. Another Indonesian soldier was killed overnight Sunday into Monday when a projectile exploded near one of the group’s positions.
“UNIFIL is conducting investigations to determine the circumstances of these reprehensible developments,” Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the head of U.N. peacekeeping, told a U.N. hearing into the situation in Lebanon, where a new war between Israel and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah erupted on March 2.
Speaking to reporters earlier at the United Nations, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, blamed the deaths of the two peacekeepers near Bani Hayyan on Hezbollah.
Asked about Danon’s statement, UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel said: “We invite them to share their evidence with our investigative team.”
Danon said Hezbollah launches rockets from civilian infrastructure within the villages, right next to U.N. positions, “putting peacekeepers directly in the line of fire.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the killing of the peacekeepers, saying that such attacks were “grave violations of international humanitarian law… and may amount to war crimes.”
“There will need to be accountability,” he added in a statement.
Indonesia’s foreign ministry on Tuesday condemned the attacks “in the strongest terms”, adding that they reflected the deteriorating security environment in the region. It said that ongoing Israeli military operations have placed U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon at grave risk.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Editing by David Ljunggren and Bill Berkrot)
