CAIRO (Reuters) -Hezbollah on Sunday condemned an attack on a United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL) convoy in Beirut on Friday which the U.S. State Department has said was reportedly carried out by supporters of the militant group.
UNIFIL said on Friday its outgoing deputy force commander was injured when the convoy, which was taking peacekeepers to Beirut airport, was “violently attacked”.
Lebanese authorities have detained more than 25 people as part of an investigation into the attack, which the U.S State Department said was carried out “reportedly by a group of Hezbollah supporters”.
In Sunday’s statement, the Iran-backed militant group expressed firm rejection to any targeting of UNIFIL forces.
Separately, it also denounced the Lebanese army for firing tear gas on Saturday at protesters of the group who were protesting against Lebanon blocking an Iranian flight to Beirut this week after accusations by the Israeli military that Tehran was using civilian aircraft to smuggle cash to Beirut to arm the Lebanese group.
It called on the Lebanese military to open a probe into what it described as an “unjustified assault on peaceful civilians”.
Iran barred Lebanese planes from repatriating dozens of Lebanese nationals stranded in Iran on Friday, in a standoff between the two countries following what Tehran described as an Israeli threat to attack it.
(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din;Editing by Helen Popper)
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