BEIRUT: The U.N. Security Council has condemned Friday’s attack on French peacekeepers in south Lebanon and called for greater cooperation between the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the Lebanese Army.
In a statement late Friday, the 15-nation Security Council “called for enhanced cooperation between the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL and for the rapid finalization of this investigation [into the attack]" and condemned all threats against security in Lebanon.

At around 10 a.m. Friday morning, a roadside bomb ripped through a vehicle belonging to the French contingent serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon in Bourj al-Shemali, near the southern coastal city of Tyre. The attack led to the wounding of five French peacekeepers.

It was the third roadside bomb targeting a UNIFIL convoy this year. Six Italian peacekeepers were wounded in May, while in July five French soldiers were wounded in another blast. Both occurred in the Sidon, south Lebanon, and no group has ever claimed responsibility for either attack.
The U.N. Security Council statement came following both local and international condemnations of the blast that targeted the international force in south Lebanon.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the attack on UNIFIL as deeply disturbing and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
"He [Ban] expects that the perpetrators will be swiftly identified and brought to justice," said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky. Ban called the attack "deeply disturbing" and said the safety of peacekeepers was of "paramount importance".

The U.S. also condemned the attack, which some analysts regard being a political message to France given its opposition toward President Bashar Assad and the uprising in Lebanon’s neighbor Syria.
"We again strongly underscore the need for Lebanon to exercise full sovereignty over its territory," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement late Friday.

"Lebanon must ensure its armed forces serve as Lebanon's sole defense force with a monopoly on the use of force and the possession of arms. All other armed groups should be disarmed," Nuland said, in an apparent reference to Hezbollah’s overriding presence in south Lebanon.
"We call on the Lebanese government to immediately investigate and bring those responsible to account for this reprehensible attack,” she added. – With AFP