Serbian peacekeeper killed in southern Lebanon, seventh since country was drawn into war on March 2

A Serbian peacekeeper was killed in southern Lebanon where mortar fire hit his base, the UN peacekeeping force and Serbian authorities announced on Thursday June 4. In a statement, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said the attack, in which two other peacekeepers were injured, occurred late Wednesday evening. The Serbian Defense Ministry said that Staff Sergeant Milovan Jovanovic had “received emergency medical care” in the base “après avoir été blessé”. He was then “transported by helicopter to the University Medical Center in Beirut, where he died”.

He is the seventh UNIFIL peacekeeper killed since Lebanon was drawn into the war on March 2, after pro-Iranian Hezbollah fired shots against Israel in support of Tehran. The UN mission declared that an investigation had been opened, while calling on the Lebanese authorities to also carry out investigations. UNIFIL currently has 7,500 peacekeepers, coming from around fifty countries. They are deployed in southern Lebanon, along the Blue Line which extends over 120 kilometers, drawing a de facto border between Lebanon and Israel. They are positioned in an area where fighting has continued since March 2, and where the Israeli army has undertaken its deepest military incursion into Lebanon since 2000