Israeli Strike On U.N. Outpost Intentional, Annan Says
There has got to be a logical motivation for Israel to have done the following:
An Israeli airstrike hit a United Nations post in southern Lebanon late Tuesday, killing four international observers, hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to lift Israel's 14-day blockade of Lebanon for shipments of humanitarian aid to reach the swelling ranks of displaced Lebanese civilians.
U.N. officials said an aerial shell struck an observer post in the hilltop town of Khiyam, and rescue teams reached the site soon after to search for survivors in the rubble. Milos Strugar, a senior adviser for the mission, known by the acronym UNIFIL, said the four observers inside the post had taken cover in bunkers after 14 Israeli airstrikes landed nearby throughout the afternoon.
In a statement, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting" of the "clearly marked U.N. post at Khiyam." Annan said Olmert had given him "personal assurances" that U.N. posts would not be targeted, adding that the UNIFIL commander had been in "repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular U.N. position from attack."
There are two possible reasons that Israel hit the UNIFIL position.
One: That the IDF is preparing to do something in the vicinity of Khiyam that they would prefer not to have U.N. observers witness.
And/or Two: That Israel is trying to make international participation in any buffer force now being negotiated for South Lebanon an even more undesirable prospect for countries considering taking part.
An Israeli airstrike hit a United Nations post in southern Lebanon late Tuesday, killing four international observers, hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to lift Israel's 14-day blockade of Lebanon for shipments of humanitarian aid to reach the swelling ranks of displaced Lebanese civilians.
U.N. officials said an aerial shell struck an observer post in the hilltop town of Khiyam, and rescue teams reached the site soon after to search for survivors in the rubble. Milos Strugar, a senior adviser for the mission, known by the acronym UNIFIL, said the four observers inside the post had taken cover in bunkers after 14 Israeli airstrikes landed nearby throughout the afternoon.
In a statement, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting" of the "clearly marked U.N. post at Khiyam." Annan said Olmert had given him "personal assurances" that U.N. posts would not be targeted, adding that the UNIFIL commander had been in "repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular U.N. position from attack."
There are two possible reasons that Israel hit the UNIFIL position.
One: That the IDF is preparing to do something in the vicinity of Khiyam that they would prefer not to have U.N. observers witness.
And/or Two: That Israel is trying to make international participation in any buffer force now being negotiated for South Lebanon an even more undesirable prospect for countries considering taking part.
posted by Effwit at 9:52 AM
11 Comments:
How exactly would Annon know if it was intentional? He is got to be the biggest waste of a Secretary-General. He has never stepped up except when it was time to condemn the U.S.
Jon:
Annan knew it was intentional because the U.N. made official protests for much of the day yesterday to Israel saying that Israeli fire was getting dangerously close to the U.N. observer mission. Finally Israel made a direct hit with a guided missile. They knew exactly what was there. They had been told by the U.N. prior to the fatal attack.
From the Guardian:
Jane Lute, the assistant secretary general for peacekeeping, told the UN security council that the base came under close Israeli fire 21 times - including 12 hits within 100 metres and four direct hits - from 1.20pm until contact was lost with the four peacekeepers inside at 7.17pm.
Ms Lute said the peacekeeping force had protested to the Israeli army after each firing incident. The UN's deputy secretary general, Mark Malloch Brown, and Ms Lute herself also made several calls to Israel's mission to the UN "reiterating these protests and calling for an abatement of the shelling", she said.
After contact with the base was lost, Unifil then won safe passage for two armoured personnel carriers to evacuate the position, she said. They arrived at 9.30pm "and found the shelter collapsed and major damage to the rest of the position". Despite negotiating safe passage, the APCs also came under Israeli attack, Ms Lute said.
Precision-guided missiles are precision-guided for a reason...to make sure they hit their targets with, um, precision.
The only thing that surprises me is that the Israelis didn't try to blame it on Hezbollah, much the same as they tried to blame the recent bombing of civilians on a Gaza beach on Hamas.
Jon:
I just went back and looked at my original post and the point was made about the repeated warnings from the U.N. to Israel before the post was attacked: "the UNIFIL commander had been in repeated contact with Israeli officers throughout the day on Tuesday, stressing the need to protect that particular U.N. position from attack".
Also the post referred to the "clearly marked U.N. post at Khiyam".
The intent was clear as can be. They deliberately fired on a target that they knew was a U.N. installation.
After reading that, you still had the nerve to question how Annan knew the Israeli attack was intentional.
You are a fucking troll, an indoctrinated talking-point parroting pathetic waste of time.
DrewL:
much the same as they tried to blame the recent bombing of civilians on a Gaza beach on Hamas
You don't think that the Palestinians mined their own tourist beach?
Me neither.
I have a friend who is a senior officer with the UN boys that came under fire.
There is no doubt, no doubt whatsover, that the hit was intentional. And the fall-out was as muderous as it was sought for , namely it's gonna be difficult if not impossible for countries with qualified staff to recruit folks for a mission within the kill-reach of a rabid Israel.
Again, enough of this baby talk in disscussing military matters - baby talk that apparently creates leeway for idiotic speculation that the Israeli hit on the base was a mistake.
Jon, go back to rounding up shopping carts at Wal-Mart or whatever it is you do to cultivate the substrate for your analysis.
Just because the UN says anything doesn't prove that it was intentional. That is ridiculous and it just fuel the fire against Isreal, but of course that is his plan.
Meatball,
Wow, personal attacks on someone you know nothing about, that is so typical of you liberals when you have no real argument. Not that there is anything wrong with working at walmart, but I don't work for walmart.
Troll:
Refer back to my previous comment to you.
Jon..personal attacks where personal attacks are deserved.
Now go gitty a semblance of humanoid on my spoiled Eurocaviared ass and I'll introduce you to the bruising world of getting personal.
So far I haven't drawn a breath deep enough to set my Cohiba aglow so as to reasonably blow a sweet whisper of rich smoke up your intellectually mortgaged ass.
And Jon, the UN didn't tell me so. A senior officer with a background in deep NRA-ish activities laid the case out with unintentional overkill. So scurry on with your one good leg and wrap up your flat earth dissertation. Reality can always wait for the doomed of mind.
Freudian slip at last..NSA-ish is what I was aiming for.
Post a Comment
<< Home