The Lebanese army said a blast at a weapons depot near the Israeli border killed six soldiers as troops were posted to the south to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure in the area as part of a disarmament plan.
The deaths come after the Lebanese government made the historic decision this week to disarm Hezbollah and charged the army with drawing up a plan to complete the process by the end of the year.
A military statement gave a preliminary toll of six soldiers killed “while an army unit was inspecting a weapons depot and dismantling its contents in Wadi Zibqin”, in Tyre district near the Israeli border.
But a military source told AFP the blast had occurred “inside a Hezbollah military facility”. Troops were “removing munitions and unexploded ordnance left over from the recent war” when the blast occurred, the source added.
Under a fragile truce that ended the war between Israel and Hezbollah last year, Lebanese troops have been in charge of removing the Iran-backed group's infrastructure in the south.
Condolences poured in shortly after Saturday's incident. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam paid tribute to the troops who were killed “while performing their national duty”, calling the army the protector of Lebanon's “unity and its legitimate institutions”.
Saudi Arabia also expressed its “sincere condolences” to Lebanon, repeating its solidarity with the country. The kingdom has in recent months moved closer towards Lebanon.
US envoy Tom Barrack, who has led Washington's efforts to disarm Hezbollah, extended the administration's “deepest condolences”.
The blast came days after he UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) said troops had discovered a “vast network of fortified tunnels” in the same area.
UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that the troops uncovered a cache of artillery, rockets, mines and improvised explosive devices.
In April, the Lebanese army said three soldiers were killed in a munitions blast, just days after another was killed in an explosion as troops dismantled mines in a tunnel.
The blast comes amid a growing push to disarm the group, sparking opposition from its supporters.
The cabinet earlier this week gave the Lebanese Armed Forces until the end of August to prepare a plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year. The group rejected that decision and said it would treat it as if it did not exist.
A senior adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that Tehran “is certainly opposed to the disarmament of Hezbollah”.
“Iran has always supported the people and the resistance of Lebanon and continues to do so,” international affairs adviser Ali Akbar Velayati told Iran's Tasnim news agency.
Lebanon's Foreign Ministry slammed the comments as “flagrant and unacceptable interference”, reminding “the leadership in Tehran that Iran would be better served by focusing on the issues of its own people”.
The US plan lists 11 “objectives” including “ensuring the sustainability” of the ceasefire with Israel announced in November and “the gradual end of the armed presence of all non-governmental entities, including Hezbollah, in all Lebanese territory”.
It also calls for the posting of Lebanese troops in border areas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the five places in the south they have occupied since last year's war with Hezbollah ended with November's ceasefire.
Lebanon says Israel's continued presence and its air strikes inside Lebanese territory are a breach of the truce.
