A French soldier of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), responsible for peacekeeping in the south of the country, died Friday in a road accident.
Finul spokesperson Andrea Tenenti blamed the accident for "poor weather conditions". "An investigation is underway," he added. The national news agency ANI indicated for its part that a "soldier of the French contingent of the UNIFIL died after the skid of the vehicle [...] in which he was", on a road in the south of the country.
Nearly 700 French soldiers
Present in Lebanon since 1978, UNIFIL has some 10,500 peacekeepers, including nearly 700 French soldiers, according to the French Ministry of Defense.
Since 2006, it has been monitoring the Lebanese-Israeli border in coordination with the Lebanese army and overseeing the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, adopted after the war between Israel and the pro-Iranian Shiite Hezbollah movement.
