Marjeyoun, Lebanon/Madrid - Spanish Defence Minister Jose Antonio Alonso arrived in southern Lebanon Monday to arrange for the transfer of the remains of six Spanish peacekeepers killed in a bombing attack a day earlier by suspected Islamist militants. According to UN sources the minister arrived at Beirut airport early Monday and headed by helicopter to the Spanish battalion base in Marjeyoun.
"The private ceremony will take place inside the base in Marjeyoun, and only Spanish media will be present," said a UN source.
"The minute the investigation is over we will be ready to transfer the bodies of our soldiers back to Spain. It will be a private ceremony," a spokesman for the Spanish Battalion said.
Forensic experts accompanying Alonso were identifying the bodies. The remains were expected to be flown to Spain on the same plane with the minister late Monday.
Alonso was also to visit the site of the attack, according to media reports in Madrid.
The area where the bomb attack took place was still cordoned off early Monday, as investigators from Lebanese army intelligence and the United Nations continued their probe begun in the early hours of the morning.
Security was reinforced around the Spanish barracks. Spain has deployed nearly 1,100 troops to south-eastern Lebanon near the border with Israel as part of UNIFIL, which has almost 13,000 soldiers from 30 countries.
People in the Khiyam area, the mainly Shiite Muslim town south of Marjeyoun where the attack took place, expressed shock over the incident, the first such strike targeting United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
"Those peacekeepers came to impose peace in this area and protect us from the Israeli shelling," said local resident Siham Mussa.
"They are very polite and friendly," she said of the UNIFIL forces. "They wave at our kids when they pass through the area."
"Whoever carried this murder should be hanged," said Khiyam man Mansour Abdullah.
Around the attack location, Lebanese and UNIFIL troops maintained the cordon.
One Spanish peacekeeper was observed weeping as he sat in his jeep. His colleagues gave probing journalists a wide berth, one angrily shouting at reporters to stay away.
"They have the right to be angry, they were sent here to impose peace and now look - they are the target," said a southern villager on the scene.
Spanish Defence Ministry sources blamed the radical Palestinian Islamist group Fatah al-Islam for Sunday's attack on two vehicles transporting UNFIL troops patrolling the Lebanon-Israel border.
Alonso did not exclude the possibility that al-Qaeda, which Fatal al-Islam is affiliated with, could also be directly responsible.
Fatah had threatened UN troops, according to Defence Ministry sources.
The attack may have been an act of vengeance, because the Spanish contingent had looked for those responsible for launching rockets into northern Israel, Spanish intelligence sources were quoted as saying.
No group has however officially claimed responsibility.
Fatah al-Islam and other forces affiliated with al-Qaeda, who have been battling the Lebanese army since May 20 in the north of the country, have threatened to hit UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon, accusing them of helping the Lebanese army shell their bases in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp outside Tripoli.
Spain will continue to take part in the peacekeeping mission despite the deaths, Alonso was quoted as saying.
"Spain supports and will continue to support the United Nations UNIFIL mission," he told reporters from the Spanish media.
"This mission was deployed to introduce peace and security to a region which has been especially punished, a region which suffered a terrible war last summer and where it was possible to restore peace thanks to the work of UNIFIL," he said.
Three of the dead were Colombian nationals serving in the Spanish army while the others were Spanish citizens. The victims were aged between 18 and 21. Three other Spanish soldiers were injured.
The Spanish army, which has been suffering from a lack of soldiers, admits Latin Americans into its ranks. Up to 9 per cent of soldiers are of immigrant origin.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called the head of the Spanish contingent in Lebanon to express his "pain" and backing for the "difficult and loyal" work the peacekeepers were doing.
King Juan Carlos sent his condolences to the soldiers' families from China, where he was on a state visit. Condolences were also expressed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa.
Immediately after the attack, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos contacted Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora, as well as his counterparts in Israel, Iran and Syria, to analyze the situation.
UNIFIL first deployed in Lebanon in 1978 after an Israeli invasion, but was expanded from some 2,000 members after the summer 2006 war between Israel and Shiite Hezbollah guerrillas.
