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Israel apologises to UN forces for shelling base

QANA, (Lebanon): Israel has apologised to U.N. peacekeepers for the "human error" of shelling a base in south Lebanon killing 101 Lebanese refugees, the peacekeepers' commander said on Friday.

Major-General Stanislaw Wozniak, commander of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), visited the Fijian battalion headquarters in the village of Qana where the refugees, sheltering from an Israeli blitz of south Lebanon, were killed on Thursday.

"I discussed...with several Israeli officers, and one of them is Israeli officer (chief of staff Amnon) Shahak who said to me it is a big tragedy. (He said) it was a human error and he apologised to me," Wozniak told Reuters.

Wozniak, a Polish officer, said the base came under Israeli shelling minutes after Hizbollah guerrillas fired rockets and mortar bombs at Israel from a position hundreds of metres away. Hizbollah has denied firing from the area.

He said four Fijian peacekeepers were wounded, one of them seriously. The seriously wounded soldier was being treated in a hospital in Haifa, Israel.

Wozniak said about 6,000 Lebanese villagers were still taking shelter at UNIFIL bases in south Lebanon.-Reuter