Six U.N. Peacekeepers Die in Lebanon Bombing

BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 24 -- A bomb attack in southern Lebanon killed six U.N. peacekeepers Sunday, the first fatalities among the U.N. force since it was reinforced after the war last summer between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

There was no immediate assertion of responsibility for the attack, which realized long-standing fears among Lebanese and U.N. officials that peacekeepers would be targeted in violence that has flared in recent months. Several unsolved bombings, along with four weeks of fighting in the north between Sunni Muslim extremists and Lebanese security forces, have heightened concerns that the country might be drifting back into a civil war.

The attack occurred four miles north of the town of Metulla on the Israel-Lebanon border. The blast, which the U.N. force called an "apparent car bomb attack," threw the peacekeepers' armored vehicle to the side of the road.

Spanish Defense Minister José Antonio Alonso told reporters in Madrid that three Colombians and two Spaniards were among the dead. "It has been a premeditated attack," he said.

Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim movement, and Amal, a smaller Shiite movement also based in the south, denounced the attack. In a statement on its al-Manar television station, Hezbollah called the attack a "suspicious act."

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud "strongly denounced" the bombing, saying it was meant to further disrupt the country.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised the peacekeepers' efforts.

"The UNIFIL mission has been very important in helping to bring about an end to the Lebanon war of last summer and helping to bring security so that the people of Lebanon could return to normal life," Rice said in Paris, using the acronym for the 13,000-member U.N. force.

The peacekeepers, from 30 countries, help 15,000 Lebanese troops patrol a zone along the Israel-Lebanon border.

Southern Lebanon has been largely quiet since last summer's war, which killed more than 1,200 people, most of them Lebanese. A rocket attack on Israel from southern Lebanon last week caused damage but no casualties, and it was unclear who was responsible for it.

The current period of unrest in Lebanon began with the February 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. Lebanese protests and international pressure led neighboring Syria, which Hariri supporters blamed for the attack, to end its 30-year military presence in Lebanon. Many here link the sporadic violence since then to tensions between factions for and against the lingering influence of Syria, a patron of Hezbollah.

About a half-dozen bombs have exploded in Beirut and other communities since late May.

During the same period, fighting erupted between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni extremist group based in a Palestinian refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli.

More than 100 people, including Lebanese and Palestinian civilians, have been killed in the fighting between the militants and Lebanese forces since May 20.

Late Saturday night, security forces raided an apartment in Tripoli and found an arms cache inside, protected by six members of an isolated Sunni extremist group, authorities said. A gun battle ensued, and the six extremists were among those killed. Lebanese officials said the fighters included three Saudis and had no known links to Fatah al-Islam or al-Qaeda.

The dead also included four members of a family living in the same apartment building. Neighbor Bassam Sardouk said the fighters entered the family's apartment to use the occupants as human shields in their battle with the army.

"Those were the longest 10 hours in my life," said Sardouk, who hid in his bathroom with his wife and four children while the battle raged overnight. "We thought we were going to die. I was sure we were going to die."