LEBANON:A list of the makes of car that "might be used as vehicle-based IEDs" - improvised explosive devices - is tagged to the walls of a Unifil office in south Lebanon.
It features a Honda Accord, a Toyota van and several types of Range Rover, but not the white Renault Rapido that on Sunday night blew up along the side of a quiet country road, just as a convoy of Spanish peacekeepers from the United Nations force was passing. The powerful explosion ripped the side off one of the armoured personnel carriers, killing six of the eight soldiers inside.
Unifil yesterday vowed to continue its mission. The 1,100 strong Spanish battalion with its headquarters at Camp Cervantes near Khiam, just north of the Israeli border, went on to the highest alert after the attack.
Lieut Francesco Estalrrich, Spanish battalion spokesman, said that patrols would exercise more caution but would otherwise, "continue as usual".
Grim-looking Spanish Unifil soldiers yesterday manoeuvred the charred remains of the Renault Rapido on to a white, UN-marked flatback truck and removed it from the scene near Khiam.
The unprecedented attack was a heavy blow to the stability of the Lebanese-Israeli border, less than a year after a strengthened Unifil was put into place at the end of a devastating war between Israel and the Shia Hizbullah movement.
Since then, however, western governments contributing to the 13,000-strong force have watched with alarm as Lebanon has been wracked by political assassinations, bomb explosions and, over the past month, full-blown battles between the army and Islamist militants.
Their worry has been that militants would target the UN presence in a spectacular attack.
In neighbouring villages to Khiam Unifil soldiers atop their vehicles were sporting full battle gear, including helmets, protective jackets and face masks.
The threat level remained high after the attack, said Lieut-Col Michel-Henri Faivre of the larger French battalion. But reducing the number of patrols or otherwise compromising Unifil's task would be "giving the terrorists what they want".
He said it was most likely the attack was carried out by a small group that wanted to provoke more instability and possibly confine Unifil to its bases. Non-essential movement of Unifil personnel, such as logistics missions and supplies, might be curtailed and "concentrated".
Hizbullah, which has kept a low profile in the area since the end of last summer's war, condemned the attack on Unifil.
Both the Spanish and the French battalions have recently requested equipment for their vehicles to jam the frequencies of the kind of remote control devices that were used in Sunday's attack.
The jammers, which are also used in other areas of conflict such as Afghanistan, are expected to arrive soon.
Timor Goksel, a Unifil expert and former spokesman, said the attack might be linked to the ongoing battle between the Lebanese army and radical Sunni militants of the Fatah al-Islam group in the northern Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
The Lebanese government says the regular outbreaks of violence in Lebanon are inspired by Syria, which is bent on destabilising its neighbour - charges that are denied in Damascus. Instability has been aggravated by a power struggle between a pro-western government and a pro-Syrian opposition.
Ghazi Aridi, the Lebanese information minister, yesterday called for more international support. He said: "We call on all the international community to help Lebanon because it is not permissible for Lebanon to be left alone. The collapse of this situation in Lebanon will lead to a collapse of the situation in all states in the region."