UN deminer killed in south Lebanon (AFP)
25 minutes ago
MARJAYOUN, Lebanon (AFP) - A Belgian sapper with the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon was killed Wednesday while clearing unexploded ordnance from Israel's 2006 war with Shiite militant group Hezbollah, UN and Belgian officials said.
"A member of the UNIFIL demining unit was killed by an explosion on Wednesday during an inspection and demining operation in the village of Aitaroun in the Marjayoun region," said Yasmina Bouzayane, spokeswoman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.
The explosion took place as the 35-year-old sapper was examining ordnance discovered Tuesday by a local shepherd, the Belgian defence ministry said in a statement.
"The demining work has stopped temporarily," it said, adding investigators would head to the site Thursday to figure out the causes of the explosion.
The Belgian defence ministry later named the dead soldier was as Stefaan Vanpeteghem, 35, a married father of two who had arrived in Lebanon in June.
"There was an explosion during a (munitions) inspection... the warrant officer died on the spot," a ministry statement said.
Demining work was suspended and an enquiry team would arrive on the scene on Thursday to determine the exact cause of death, it added.
It was the fourth Belgian fatality in Lebanon since a battalion arrived from Belgium two years ago. The three others were killed in a road accident last year.
Belgium has 340 soldiers in the 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, most of them engaged in demining.
South Lebanon is littered with unexploded munitions from the 2006 conflict, particularly bomblets from cluster munitions.
The UN estimates that around 40 percent of the one million cluster bomb submunitions dropped by Israel failed to explode -- and those which exploded later wounded or killed more than 250 people to date.
UN deminers have now cleared 43 percent of the affected areas, but at least 30 Lebanese civilians have been killed by such ordnance left over from the war.
Lebanon in 2007. A Belgian sapper with the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon was killed Wednesday while clearing unexploded ordnance from Israel" class="newsimage" />