The four United Nations observers who were killed last July at the observation post of Khiam had been obliged to take refuge in the bunker underneath their position already from the very first days of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militia.
Israeli artillery began to batter the Khiam area just hours after Hezbollah had seized two Israeli soldiers.
According to Israeli Defence Force sources, Hezbollah was firing rockets from positions close to the observation post.
The United Nations has reported that there was no rocket fire whatsoever from this direction on the day in which the post was eventually blown to pieces. The attack resulted in the deaths of four men. One of the victims was Finnish Navy Lt. Jarno Tapio Mäkinen.
According to one source, after the first day of the fighting, Hezbollah was not active anywhere in the vicinity of the UN post.
Villagers in Khiam seem to be strong supporters of Hezbollah, but they were adamant that there was no base of the military wing of the organisation in the village.
Helsingin Sanomat sent its own reporter to see for herself the grim situation at the UN observer post in Southern Lebanon. The account will be presented in full in our weeklies on November 7th.
