BEIRUT
The head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon on Monday led a solemn tribute to a French soldier killed in a shooting incident in the country’s south, praising his “service and sacrifice” and urging an investigation into the attack.
Major General Diodato Abagnara, commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), honored Sergeant-Chef Florian Montorio during a ceremony at Beirut airport before his body was repatriated to France.
“We are here to honor you,” Abagnara said in remarks addressed to the fallen peacekeeper, adding that his service “lives on” through fellow soldiers and peacekeepers.
Montorio, 39, was killed on Sunday when a UNIFIL patrol clearing explosive ordnance came under small-arms fire near Ghanduriyah in south Lebanon. Three other peacekeepers were wounded, two of them seriously.
