South Korean troops arrive in Lebanon to join UN peacekeepers

Nearly 300 South Korean troops arrived in Lebanon Thursday to join United Nations peacekeepers overseeing a UN-brokered cease-fire that ended last summer's fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

The 288 troops arrived aboard a South Korean military plane that landed at Beirut airport. They were welcomed by UN and Lebanese army commanders before boarding UN buses that took them to their positions in southern Lebanon.

The troops are the bulk of a 350-strong South Korean contingent that will serve as part of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL. The force is made up of 13,000 troops drawn from 30 countries.

A batch of 61 South Korean troops arrived in Lebanon July 5 to join UNIFIL.

The UN peacekeepers have deployed along Lebanon's border with Israel after the 34-day fighting between Hezbollah and Israel last summer that killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and 159 Israelis.

The arrival of the latest batch of South Korean troops followed two attacks, one deadly, that targeted UNIFIL over the past month.

Six peacekeepers from UNIFIL's Spanish contingent were killed June 24 when a bomb struck their armored personnel carrier in southern Lebanon. Two others were seriously wounded.

On Monday, a roadside bomb planted on a coastal road in south Lebanon exploded near a UN post as a peacekeeping vehicle drove past. No one was hurt.

No group has claimed responsibility for the June blast. But in a videotape last week, Al-Qaida's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri blessed the attack, fueling speculation that it was carried out by al-Qaida-linked militants.

	A South Korean peacekeeper en route to board a UN bus on Thursday after landing in Beirut. (AP)