UNIFIL Bomb Triggered by Electric Wire, French Investigators to Assist in Probe
Investigators probing the roadside bombing that targeted a U.N. convoy on Tuesday have said that the bomb weighed around 6 kilograms and was detonated through an electric wire.
Security sources told Beirut dailies that the 6-kilogram TNT was hidden under dirt on the side of the road near the southern port city of Sidon when it was detonated, injuring six French peacekeepers.
The electric wire was 120-150 meters long, they said. A security source told al-Liwaa daily that a single person could have been standing behind the trees waiting for the convoy to pass to trigger the bomb.
Investigators by now know the direction that the vehicle took to escape the bombing scene, the source said.
No suspect has been yet arrested but a judicial source confirmed to pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat that authorities were questioning several witnesses. As Safir newspaper said that 25 people were being questioned for being near the site of the explosion.
On Thursday, government commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr heard the testimony of several witnesses in the UNIFIL bombing case, the National News Agency reported.
Investigators from both the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon and the Lebanese army examined the site where the bomb exploded. But the Asharq al-Awsat source said that Lebanon approved a French request to bring in French investigators to assist in the probe.
On Wednesday, France repatriated three of the six troops injured in the blast.
While Italy decided to decrease to 700 the 1,780 soldiers serving in Lebanon, France hasn’t yet hinted that it would take such measure. But An Nahar newspaper quoted sources as saying that Paris was “very firm in its demand to unveil the side or parties involved in the attack on its troops as soon as possible.”
France also stressed that Lebanon should assume its full responsibility in protecting UNIFIL and show its seriousness in putting an end to the series of attacks on foreign troops, the sources said.
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