"BEIRUT, Lebanon - An Israeli bomb destroyed a U.N. observer post on the border in southern Lebanon, killing two peacekeepers and leaving two others feared dead in what appeared to be a deliberate strike, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said.
The bomb made a direct hit on 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 U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.
Annan issued a statement saying two U.N. military observers were killed with two more feared dead. Earlier, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the Security Council was informed that four officers were killed.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman expressed his "deep regret" for the deaths and denied the post was intentionally targeted.
Rescue workers were trying to clear the rubble, but Israeli firing "continued even during the rescue operation," Struger said.
U.N. officials said four observers were in the post when the bomb hit, and the building had been destroyed. Two bodies had been recovered and two were unaccounted for, apparently still in the rubble. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The victims included observers from Austria, a Canada, China and Finland, U.N. and Lebanese military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media. It was not immediately known which were confirmed dead.
As reports of the attack emerged, Annan rushed out of a hotel in Rome following a dinner with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces of a U.N. Observer post in southern Lebanon," Annan said in the statement."
Oh really Annan, and on what evidence do you base this assertion? Some of your third-world thugs with you at the UN?
Talk about a lethal lack of leadership. At a time when you would think he would measure his words, he let's it all hang out without a shred of evidence. This with more scandals at his helm than all the former SG of the UN combined. Open mouth - insert hoof. This may be his curtain call on the world stage. At the very least it's further evidence for his ineptness.
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