UN: IDF laid mines in Lebanon during summer war

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A UN agency said Saturday that Israel laid mines in Lebanon during this summer's war between the Jewish state and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group _ the first time Israel has been accused of planting mines during the latest fighting. A report by the UN Mine Action Coordination Center followed an investigation of a land mine explosion that wounded two European disposal experts and a Lebanese medic on Friday. Later Saturday, the agency reported that a British demining expert who was trying to clear mines from the same area where Friday's explosion occured also was injured in a separate land mine blast. The explosions were caused by Israeli anti-personnel mines placed in fields newly laid during the fighting in July and August in south Lebanon, the center said. "This is the first evidence we have that the Israeli forces laid new mines in south Lebanon in 2006," the UN agency said in a statement.