Tuesday, 13 October 2009
An explosion of an arms cache in a southern Lebanese village near Tyre late Monday night was proof of continued Hizbullah violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, senior military sources said.
Lebanese security officials said the explosion occurred in a building in the village of Tayr Filsay about 6 kilometers north of Israel that was likely used as a Hizbullah weapons depot.
At least one person was killed, with Reuters reporting as many as five deaths. The state-run National News Agency reported that the explosion destroyed the three-story building.
The IDF filed a complaint with UNIFIL and demanded that the peacekeeping force launch an investigation into the incident.
According to Lebanese news reports, the building belonged to Abdul Nasser Issa, a senior Hizbullah operative who may have been killed in the explosion.
Other reports claimed that the explosion was caused by IDF ordnance left behind following the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Defense officials rejected the claim.
"This is proof of the existence of illegal weaponry in southern Lebanon," IDF sources said, referring to a similar explosion in July in the village of Hirbet Selm when a home hiding a major Hizbullah arms cache exploded. According to the IDF, the cache in Hirbet Selm was hidden in a home in the village and contained dozens of 122mm Katyusha rockets.
"Hizbullah uses civilians as shields to protect its weaponry," an Israeli defense official said, adding that according to intelligence, the Lebanese guerrilla group was storing arms caches in dozens of additional villages in southern Lebanon.
UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said the force was in touch with the Lebanese Army "to try to confirm the circumstances of the explosion."•
