2 Lebanese army personnel killed after crashed Israeli drone explodes

Lebanon’s army says two personnel were killed today after an Israeli drone that had crashed in the country’s south exploded, the latest deadly incident for Lebanese troops near the Israeli border.

Under a November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of open war between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon’s army has been deploying in the country’s south and dismantling the Iran-backed terror group’s infrastructure there with the support of UN peacekeepers.

“While army personnel were inspecting an Israeli enemy drone after it fell in the Naqura area, it exploded, leading to the death of an officer and a soldier and wounding two other personnel,” the army says in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from the IDF on the incident.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun says in a statement that “the army is once again paying in blood the price of maintaining stability in the south.”

He says it was the fourth deadly incident for the army since it began deploying in south Lebanon after the ceasefire.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam expresses his condolences and the government’s “full solidarity with the military institution.”

He says the army is Lebanon’s “safety valve, the stronghold of sovereignty and the support of national unity.”