AFP/Beirut

Italian military experts inspect the site of Friday’s explosion at Remaily village near the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon yesterday
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon said yesterday it has launched an investigation into a roadside bomb blast that wounded six Italian peacekeepers, two of them seriously, and two civilians.
“For now, all we can say is that Unifil’s forensics team is working with the Lebanese army to investigate the explosion,” the mission’s spokesman, Neeraj Singh, said.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the bomb attack which targeted a Unifil jeep on a main highway linking the capital Beirut to south Lebanon, where the 12,000-strong force is deployed.
The explosion, which occurred at the entrance to the mainly Sunni city of Sidon on Lebanon’s southern coast, wounded two passersby and six Italian troops.
Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa yesterday announced his country would reduce the size of its contingent, the largest in the multinational force.
“At the moment we have 1,780 soldiers, but it’s too many,” La Russa said in an interview with La Repubblica newspaper.
“As we are no longer in command of the mission, then we should reduce our contribution to 1,100 as soon as possible,” he told the daily.
La Russa had confirmed on Friday that six of his country’s troops in Lebanon were injured, including two who were in critical condition.
Spain currently holds command of Unifil, which was founded in 1978 and is tasked with overseeing a fragile peace at the southern Lebanese border with Israel.
After Italy, France forms the largest contingent with 1,600 soldiers followed by Spain, which contributes 1,100 peacekeepers.
Friday’s blast, in a normally quiet area outside Unifil’s area of operations, came two days before the UN marks Peacekeepers Day and hours after a commemoration ceremony in south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, to honour 292 Unifil peacekeepers who have died in service.