(Adds U.N. official, Irish statement, Lebanese PM, previous BEIRUT) By Ali Ghamloush RMAILEH, Lebanon, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Two U.N. peacekeeping soldiers were slightly wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in south Lebanon on Tuesday, a spokesman for the United Nations force said. Ireland's Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea said the wounded men were Irish. Milos Struger, a senior official with the peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, said it was too early to say who was behind the attack but pointed to threats against it. "As you know there were a number of threats against UNIFIL coming from al Qaeda affiliated organisations and we take all these threats seriously," Struger told reporters at the scene of the attack. "We had comprehensive security and protective measures in place and we have to wait for the result of the investigation." The blast smashed the windows of a white U.N. four-wheel-drive vehicle near Rmaileh village, 35 km (22 miles) south of Beirut and not far from the sprawling Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, a hotbed for Islamist militant groups. It was the third attack on the 13,500-strong UNIFIL since it was expanded after a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas ended in August 2006. Three Spanish and three Colombian U.N. soldiers were killed when a bomb destroyed their armoured troop carrier in the first attack, on June 24 last year. In July, a bomb exploded near a UNIFIL position, causing no casualties. Lebanese authorities have charged six Palestinians, three of them in absentia, in relation to that blast. CROSS-BORDER ATTACK Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora denounced the attack as "a terrorist crime" and pledged his government's determination to capture the perpetrators. Ireland's Defence Forces said the peacekeepers were taken to hospital with superficial injuries. The Defence Forces have seven personnel working in UNIFIL headquarters in Lebanon after the withdrawal of its 160-troop contingent in Oct. and Nov. 2007. Tuesday's attack occurred hours after Israel said two rockets fired from Lebanon overnight had exploded in the northern border village of Shlomi, inflicting no casualties. Israel, which came under Hezbollah rocket barrages during the 2006 war, is on high alert ahead of a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush that begins on Wednesday. Several Palestinian militant groups have a presence in Lebanon and have at times launched attacks across the border. UNIFIL works alongside thousands of Lebanese army troops who were deployed in the south to stabilise the border area and keep it clear of armed Hezbollah guerrillas after the war. The bomb explosion against UNIFIL happened a day after a man claiming to be the leader of the Fatah al-Islam group threatened attacks against the Lebanese army, which crushed its fighters at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon last year. "Nahr al-Bared camp will stand witness to your shame until the mujahideen tread your (bodies) with their shoes," a speaker identified as Shaker al-Abssi said in an audio recording posted on a Web site used by al Qaeda and other Islamist groups. If authenticated, the recording would be the first proof that Abssi survived the fighting, which cost over 400 lives. Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia for the killing of a U.S. diplomat in Jordan in 2002. He was later jailed in Syria before setting up Fatah al-Islam in north Lebanon last year. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has criticised Hezbollah for allowing UNIFIL to expand its presence in the south. In a recording posted on an Islamist Web site on Dec. 29, he said the mission of the peacekeepers was to "protect the Jews". (Additional reporting by Nadim Ladki and Laila Bassam in Beirut and Paul Hoskins in Dublin, Writing by Alistair Lyon, Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Italian U.N. Peacekeepers, part of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), patrol the Israeli-Lebanese border in Rmeish village, southern Lebanon, January 8, 2008. Two rockets were fired from Lebanon ...
