Spanish Official Arrives in Lebanon

Spanish Defense Minister Jose Antonio Alonso arrived Monday in Lebanon, where Spanish U.N. peacekeepers had been killed by a bomb.

The BBC reported that three Spaniards and two Colombians in the Spanish army were killed in an explosion near the Lebanon-Israel border. Another two Spanish members of the U.N. Interim Force were injured by the roadside bomb, the BBC reported.

No group had taken responsibility for the attack. But officials said prisoners from the group Fatah al-Islam, which the army has been fighting in northern Lebanon, said during interrogations there was a plan to attack U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, the BBC reported.

Officials in Beirut have accused Syria of backing the militant group, a charge Damascus denies.

Spain has about 1,100 troops in Lebanon.