Israeli bomb kills at least 3 U.N. observers

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- An Israeli bomb destroyed a U.N. observer post on the border in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, killing three peacekeepers and leaving another feared dead.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a statement announcing the deaths, saying the strike appeared to be deliberate.

The bomb made a direct hit on the building and shelter of the observer post in the town of Khiam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.

Israel's U.N. ambassador Dan Gillerman expressed his "deep regret" for the deaths and denied the post was intentionally targeted.

Rescue workers were trying to clear the rubble, but Israeli firing "continued even during the rescue operation," Struger said.

U.N. officials said four observers were in the post when the bomb hit, and the building had been destroyed.

The victims included observers from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, U.N. and Lebanese military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media. It was not immediately known which were confirmed dead.

As reports of the attack emerged, Annan rushed out of a hotel in Rome following a dinner with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces of a U.N. Observer post in southern Lebanon," Annan said in the statement.

Annan said in his statement that the post had been there for a long time and was marked clearly, and was hit despite assurances from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that U.N. positions would not be attacked.

"I call on the government of Israel to conduct a full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demand that any further attack on U.N. positions and personnel must stop," Annan said in the statement.

Gillerman called the assertions "premature and erroneous."

"I am shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement of the secretary-general, insinuating that Israel has deliberately targeted the U.N. post," he said.