Five Lebanese soldiers were killed on Saturday in an explosion in a Hezbollah military facility.The troops were reportedly clearing munitions, a military source told AFP.The blast took place near Majdal Zoun and Wadi Zibqin in Tyre district as troops were “removing munitions and unexploded ordnance left over from the recent war” between Israel and the Iran-backed group, the source said. The facility had been part of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure, which the Lebanese army has been dismantling under a November truce agreement that ended the conflict.The army has not issued a statement, but President Joseph Aoun said he had spoken to army commander Rodolphe Haykal about a “painful incident” that resulted in casualties among troops. The presidency confirmed the blast was caused by a munitions explosion during an engineering unit’s work to disable ordnance. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam paid tribute on X to the soldiers who died “while performing their national duty”.“With great pain, Lebanon mourns the sons of our brave army who rose as martyrs in the south while performing their national duty. All of Lebanon, state and people, bows in reverence before their sacrifices and pure blood, which reaffirm that our army is the safeguard, the fortress of sovereignty, and the protector of the nation’s unity and its legitimate institutions. May God have mercy on our heroes,” Salam said.The explosion came two days after Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, said forces had uncovered “a vast network of fortified tunnels” in the same area. UN spokesman Farhan Haq later said peacekeepers and Lebanese troops found “three bunkers, artillery, rocket launchers, hundreds of explosive shells and rockets, anti-tank mines and about 250 ready-to-use improvised explosive devices”.
