United Nations peacekeepers helped to evacuate overnight 16 Lebanese civilians wounded in an Israeli air strike on southeast Lebanon, a UN officer told AFP Sunday.
Indian peacekeepers of the UN Interim Forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) helped residents of this mountainous region evacuate their relatives, who had been stranded for several hours on the main road leading to the village after an Israeli helicopter raid late Saturday, he said.
The road to Shabaa had been cut by two missiles fired by Israeli jets that dug a crater of 10 meters (30 feet) of diameter and with a depth of five meters, an AFP correspondent saw.
On both sides of the crater, the road was also blocked by about 15 cars that burned out during the Israeli strikes.
"We spent the evening trying to evacuate the wounded, but only after the helicopters, which were firing on anything moving, left the Lebanese skies," a UNIFIL officer told AFP.
"Some of the wounded braved the Israeli fire and dragged themselves until Shabaa, where our peacekeepers gave them first-aid treatment because there is no hospital or dispensary in Shabaa," he said.
Shabaa residents can only access their village from the western side on foot, as they considering the southern road running along the Shabaa Farms too dangerous.
The Israeli strikes came after the Lebanese Shiite Muslim guerrillas kidnapped three Israeli soldiers in an infiltration attempt into the Farms, a mountainous region at the Lebanese-Syrian borders occupied by Israel.
On Saturday, a total of 27 Lebanese civilians were wounded by Israeli air and artillery strikes -- SHEBAA, Lebanon (AFP)
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