French UN soldier killed in Lebanon demining

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

TYRE, Lebanon (AFP) — A soldier serving with the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon was killed in an explosion on Wednesday during demining operations in the south of the country, a UN spokeswoman told AFP.

Yasmina Bouziane said the soldier, identified as French by the defence ministry in Paris, died while clearing unexploded ordnance with an engineering team in a valley south of the village of Shamaa.

"One soldier died from the explosion of an ordnance," Bouziane said.

The village is located about 15 kilometers (nine miles) south of the port city of Tyre.

The soldier's death brings to 10 the number of UN peacekeepers who have died in Lebanon since the start of the year, Bouziane said.

Last month three Spanish and three Colombian members of the...