An Israeli air strike destroyed a base of the UN observer force in south Lebanon Tuesday night, killing four UN observers, including one Chinese.

 

The body of the Chinese victim, whose name is Du Zhaoyu, has been found, said sources of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

 

Milos Strugar, spokesman of the UNIFIL, said earlier that an Israeli bomb directly hit the base of the UN Observer Group in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel.

 

By 03:10 AM local time Wednesday, the UNIFIL have recovered three bodies of the victims from the rubble, including the Chinese observer.

 

The other three dead UN observers were from Finland, Austria and Canada, the UNIFIL sources confirmed.

 

"This coordinated artillery and aerial attack on a long established and clearly marked UN post at Khiam occurred despite personal assurances given to me by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be spared Israeli fire," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement issued at UN headquarters in New York.

 

Annan called on Israel to investigate the "apparently deliberate targeting" of the base.

 

Meanwhile, UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said at UN headquarters in New York: "I can confirm that the four military observers that came under attack in Khiam were killed in that attack."

 

In Jerusalem, an Israeli army spokeswoman said the military was investigating the report.

 

5 UN peacekeeping soldiers killed in Israeli strike 

 

Five Indian UN peacekeeping soldiers were killed in an Israeli air strike on south Lebanon Tuesday night, the pan-Arab al-Jazeera satellite channel reported.

 

No further details were revealed.

 

The Israeli army continued air strikes across Lebanon yesterday and small units of Israeli forces were in south Lebanon to mount "pinpoint" attacks against strongholds of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.

 

On Monday, four Ghanaian UN peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank shell hit their position near the southern Lebanese village of Rmeish.

 

On Sunday, an Italian UN observer was wounded by Lebanese Hezbollah guerillas' fire during clashes against Israeli forces in the southern Lebanese border village of Maroun al-Ras.

 

Created in 1978 and deployed in south Lebanon since then, the UNIFIL has been committed to confirming the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, restoring the international peace and security and helping the Lebanese government restore its effective authority in the area.

 

Violence erupted in Lebanon on July 12 when Israel started a massive assault following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerillas in cross-border attacks.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2006)