Hezbollah rejects any role in attack on UN force
Source: Reuters
DUBAI, July 24 (Reuters) - Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday rejected any suggestion his Shi'ite Muslim guerrilla group was responsible for a deadly bombing attack against U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon last month. Six peacekeepers were killed in the June 24 car bomb attack on a Spanish patrol of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which was expanded after last year's war between Israel and Hezbollah. "Some people tried (to accuse) Hezbollah ... this is untrue. Then al Qaeda, the salafists and I don't know who else. That is possible, why not? But why not Israel?" Nasrallah told Al Jazeera television."I assume that Israeli (responsibility) is a possibility alongside the other possibilities...," he said. "If (Israel) wants to start a war then it has an interest in pushing (UNIFIL) out. The presence of the UNIFIL forces would be very embarrassing for the Israelis if they are thinking about a large ground operation in the next war." No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the al Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam group battling the Lebanese army in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon had threatened UNIFIL. Last year, Ayman al-Zawahri, deputy leader of Sunni al Qaeda, also threatened attacks. The 2006 war erupted after Hezbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. About 1,200 Lebanese and 157 Israelis were killed in the 34-day war. UNIFIL was expanded as part of an Aug. 14 truce between Israel and Hezbollah and says its mandate is to ensure the group does not have a military presence south of the Litani river. It has reported few problems with Hezbollah. The Western-backed Lebanese government is locked in a political standoff with the Hezbollah-led opposition and has been shaken by a series of bombings as well as battles with al Qaeda-inspired militants. Hezbollah is backed by the secular government in Damascus and the Shi'ite Islamic Republic of Iran. No mention was made in the Al Jazeera interview about Syria and Iran in connection with the attack.
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