Europe

Europe

France remains committed to peacekeeping mission in Lebanon: ambassador

10 December 2011 02:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. France intends to pursue its peacekeeping mission as part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), French Ambassador to Beirut Dennis Pietton said Friday, hours after a roadside bomb hit a UNIFIL patrol and wounded five French peacekeepers, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

In a statement issued by the French embassy in Beirut, Pietton urged the Lebanese authorities to exert all efforts to uncover the perpetrators behind the attack and bring them to justice.

A roadside bomb targeted a four-wheel drive vehicle of the French contingent serving with the UNIFIL near the southern port city of Tyre on Friday morning, wounding five French peacekeepers and one Lebanese civilian.

A security source told Xinhua that the bomb was placed under a garbage container on the side of a road leading to the Nabbaha neighborhood in Tyre and went off at around 10 a.m. (0800 GMT).

This was the third roadside bomb attack targeting the UNIFIL convoy in Lebanon this year. Six Italian peacekeepers were wounded by such an attack in May and five French soldiers were injured in another blast in July. Both attacks took place in the southern coastal city of Sidon, and no group has claimed responsibility for them.

Italy downsized its contingent after the attack in May.

However, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe strongly condemned the attack and said France was "determined to continue its involvement with UNIFIL (and) will not be intimidated by such vile acts."