Blast Kills U.N. Peacekeepers In Lebanon

A car bomb explosion killed six U.N. peacekeepers patrolling a southern Lebanon road Sunday in an attack that could have serious repercussions beyond Lebanon's borders.

Up north, Lebanese troops engaged in another battle with Islamic militants in Tripoli that claimed 10 more lives.

The mounting violence across Lebanon reflected the fast growing instability that is certain to throw the country into further chaos.

The deadly attack against the peacekeepers marked the first time that the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, has come under attack since it was reinforced last summer after the war between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli forces in Lebanon.

"The attack on U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon made it clear that the Interim Force is a target itself and came after calls to fortify it in response to the problems in the Palesinian refugee camps," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk, "and after al Qaeda specifically made clear that they were against the U.N. presence."

Hezbollah was quick to denounce the attack, calling it in a statement a "suspicious act that harms the people of the south and of Lebanon." The militant has had good relations with UNIFIL since the troops were first deployed in Lebanon in 1978.

Though it was uncertain who was behind Sunday's explosion, there have been warnings that the U.N. peacekeepers could be hit by a terror attack, particularly from al Qaeda and its sympathizers.

Al Qaeda's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri denounced the reinforced UNIFIL last fall in a video, and media reports earlier this month said interrogations by Lebanese authorities with captured militants revealed plots to attack the force.

UNIFIL said in a statement that the six peacekeepers were killed and two others seriously wounded in an "apparent car bomb attack" while they were on patrol.

Lebanese officials said it appeared the explosion was triggered by remote control. No body parts were found in the car, meaning the bomb was detonated from a distance and did not involve a suicide attacker.

In Madrid, Spanish Defense Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said among the dead were three Colombian and two Spanish peacekeepers. He called it a "premeditated attack" and said the "most likely cause" was either a car bomb or device activated by remote control.

The nationality of the sixth fatally wounded peacekeeper was not immediately known.

The blast caused fires and threw the troops' armored personnel carrier to the side of a main road between the towns of Marjayoun and Khiam, a few miles north of the Israeli town of Metulla. TV footage showed troops rushing to rescue their comrades. Four soldiers carried one from his limbs. One slightly soldier who was injured was seen limping away from the site.

Investigators worked under floodlights late Sunday at the scene to determine what happened.

Spain has 1,100 peacekeepers in Lebanon that are part of the 13,000-member U.N. force from 30 countries. UNIFIL, along with 15,000 Lebanese troops, patrol a zone along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

UNIFIL's presence is instrumental in giving international teeth to the U.N. cease-fire resolution that halted last summer's 34-day war. The reinforced UNIFIL force had received assurance regarding the safety of its troops and such attacks like Sunday's could weaken the resolve of contributing countries. It also could have serious repercussions for peace along the border.

Western-backed Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora denounced the "suspicious terrorist attack," saying "it targets Lebanon's security and stability."

Israel expressed "deep sorrow" at the deaths and offered assistance "in any way required," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. Syria also denounced the attack, the official news agency reported. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told his Spanish counterpart in a telephone call that the attack was "a criminal act that aims at shaking security and stability in southern Lebanon."

At a news conference in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also condemned the attack.

The warnings that UNIFIL could be hit with a terror attack became more serious after the al Qaeda-inspired Islamic militant group Fatah Islam began fighting Lebanese troops in a northern Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp five weeks ago. The militants have threatened to expand their battle to other parts of Lebanon.

But the attack also comes as the United Nations has become increasingly involved in highly divisive issues in Lebanon, including its relations with neighboring Syria. Last month, the U.N. Security Council imposed an international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri despite rejection from the country's Hezbollah-led opposition, which supports Damascus' involvement in Lebanon.

Over the past three years, the United Nations has issued resolutions calling on Syria to stop interfering in Lebanese affairs and had considered a mission to monitor the border with Syria.

As part of security precautions, U.N. staff in Beirut in recent days erected a 13 feet blast wall around the building housing U.N. offices.

Southern Lebanon has been largely quiet after the summer war that killed more than 1,200 people, most of them in Lebanon. However, rockets were fired on Israel a week ago, causing damage but no casualties in an attack that was blamed on radical Palestinians or sympathizers with Fatah Islam.

Up north in the port city of Tripoli, Lebanese troops on Sunday raided an apartment complex suspected of housing Islamic militants, sparking a gun battle that left 10 people dead, including six militants, security officials said.

An army soldier, a policeman and two family members were also killed in the fighting, which began when troops seized a building where militants had taken refuge after nighttime clashes.

Among the Islamic militants killed were three Saudi nationals, one ethnic Chechen and two Lebanese who also held foreign passports, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The battle shifted the fighting from the bombed out Nahr el-Bared back to nearby Tripoli where violence first erupted May 20 and underlined the immense challenges facing the army as it battles al Qaeda-inspired militants.

The Nahr el-Bared fighting, Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war, has killed 80 soldiers and wounded more than 150. The fighting has claimed the lives of at least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians.