Canadian PM Doubts Israel Hit Peacekeepers Intentionally

The Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, told reporters that he doubted that Israeli forces intentionally hit the UN peacekeepers. One of the four who died was Canadian. He also has a question for the irresponsible head of the UN, Kofi Annan:

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday he doubts Israel's deadly attack on a UN observation post in Lebanon, which killed a Canadian observer, was deliberate.

Harper, speaking to reporters in eastern New Brunswick, said the Canadian military would consult with the United Nations and Israeli government to determine what happened.

Harper also said he wants to know why the post was still manned by UN observers even though it was in the middle of an obvious war zone.

Though Annan has suggested Israel targeted the outpost, Harper believes
otherwise.

"I certainly doubt that to be the case, given that the government of Israel has been cooperating with us in our evacuation efforts, in our efforts to move Canadian citizens out of Lebanon and also trying to keep our own troops that are on the ground involved in the evacuation out of harm's way," he said.

"We want to find out why this United Nations post was attacked and also why it remained manned during what is now, more or less, a war during obvious danger to these individuals," Harper said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday that he has instructed the military to carry out a thorough investigation into an Israel Air Force strike on a UN base in southern Lebanon, in which four peacekeepers were killed.

He told Annan that the results would be shared with him.

Peacekeepers had called the Israel Defense Forces 10 times in a six-hour period to ask it to halt its nearby bombing
before their observation post was hit, killing four people, according to details of a preliminary UN report on the incident released to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

During each phone call, an Israeli official promised to halt the bombing, according to a UN official who had seen the preliminary report.

The peacekeepers at the post said the area within a kilometer of the post was hit with precision munitions, including 17 bombs and 12 artillery shells, four of which directly hit the post Tuesday, the report said.

The IDF said it regrets the deaths of the UN personnel and said all offensive operations in Lebanon are directed at Hezbollah.

The IDF also said that Hezbollah gunners were firing at Israel from the concerned area and the IDF thus decided to operate there. Nevertheless, the IDF said it would conduct a compehensive investigation into the incident in full cooperation with the UN.

It certainly sounds as if Harper has a better grasp on reality than Annan who has still not pulled peacekeepers out of harms way. It sounds like Hezbollah was trying to stay close to the UN post in order to provoke retaliation, though, doesn't it?

UPDATE: Donald Sensing channels Dr. Suess! (And I thought A. Conan Doyle was fun!)

UPDATE: It also sounds like I was spot on. LGF links an interview with a retired Canadian general who says that Hezbollah was putting their positions right in among the UN - making them targets and yet another Hezbollah war crime. Time to pull the UN people back right now.