Irish soldiers serving with the UN were on high alert last night after a car-bomb killed six Spanish peacekeepers in south Lebanon close to the Irish base yesterday.
It was the first deadly attack on the 13,000-strong United Nations force since last year's war between Hizbullah and Israel and it drew swift condemnation from the United States, France and others.
A police source said that a mangled car was found at the scene with human remains inside. Security sources had said earlier that the blast was caused by a roadside bomb detonated by remote control.
Irish soldiers were first on the scene and raised the alarm after the blast, which occurred at about 4pm Irish time. The Irish attempted to rescue some of the injured and administer first aid, but they were unable to reach all of the victims because the armoured personnel carrier they were travelling in caught fire after ammunition inside it exploded.
A United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) statement said that six soldiers had been killed and two wounded in the attack. A UN source said that the death toll rose after a soldier died of his wounds several hours later.
Spanish defence minister Jose Antonio Alonso said that two Spanish and three Colombian peacekeepers, all serving in the Spanish army, had been killed in the blast. Three Spanish soldiers were also wounded, he said.
The attack hit two UN vehicles near the southern town of Khiam. Witnesses said that ammunition in the armoured personnel carrier had exploded after the initial blast. Two soldiers on top of the vehicle were blown dozens of metres into a field. Two of those who died inside were burnt beyond recognition.
The blast occurred near the village of Khiam, where Irish troops are building a monument to four other UN peacekeepers killed in last summer's war between Israel and Hizbullah.
The Guardian adds: Observers linked the attack to the siege of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon, where more than 160 people have been killed in fighting between the Lebanese army and the al-Qaeda-inspired militants of Fatah al-Islam. A number of captured militants have confessed to planning operations against Unifil targets in the south.
Timur Goksel, a former Unifil senior adviser, said he doubted whether the militants in Nahr al-Bared had the capability for such an operation after 36 days of fierce bombardment. He believed that the attack was likely to have been carried out by a jihadist group sympathetic to Fatah al-Islam.
The UN force began patrolling south Lebanon and Lebanese coastal waters after last summer's war between Hizbullah and Israel.