• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Security Council condemns 'heinous' terrorist attack in northern Lebanon

1 February 2014 – The United Nations Security Council has strongly condemned the "heinous" terrorist attack which killed at least four people and wounded dozens of others today in Hermel, Lebanon, a town near the country's northern border.

"The members of the Security Council underline the need to bring the perpetrators to justice," the 15-member body said in a press statement issued in New York shortly after the incident, which, according to news reports, was a suicide bomb attack carried out a gas station in the town, which is near Lebanon's northern border with Syria.

In the statement, the Council extended its condolences to the families of the victims and expressed sympathy to all those injured in the heinous act and to the people and Government of Lebanon.

Reaffirming that terrorism constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, Council members also reaffirmed the need to combat the scourge in all its forms and manifestations "by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and all obligations under international law.

Recalling its Presidential Statement of July 10, 2013, the members of the Council appealed to all Lebanese people to preserve national unity in the face of attempts to undermine the country's stability and stressed "the importance for all Lebanese parties to respect Lebanon's policy of disassociation and to refrain from any involvement in the Syrian crisis, consistent with their commitment in the Baabda Declaration."

Today's incident was the latest in a spate of deadly attacks in Lebanon, the most recent being an explosion in a southern Beirut suburb that killed four people and wounded a number of others on 21 January. That attack was condemned by the Security Council as well as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Derek Plumbly.

The car bombing, which was the second to strike the suburb of Haret Hreik in January, was "a further deeply disturbing act of indiscriminate terror," the Secretary-General said in a statement on that incident issued by his spokesman.