Six Malaysian Peacekeepers Injured in Lebanon

Some of the Malbatt 850-12 personnel wearing their UN berets at the farewell ceremony on November 6 at the Subang airbase. Mindef.

SHAH ALAM: Six Malaysian peacekeepers – five newly arrived personnel from Malbatt 850-12 – were injured in an explosion Lebanon. The sixth peacekeeper was from Malbat 850-11 suffered a fracture in the left arm and was later taken to a hospital for treatment.

The Defence Ministry in a statement, described the injuries suffered by the other five as minor. It said the explosion occurred when a civilian vehicle headed towards Beirut was hit and it caused damage to a bus carrying the Unifil peacekeepers, injuring six of them. The bus were carrying the peacekeepers from Beirut to the Marakah camp the headquarters of the Malbatt. The Straits Times carried pictures of the injured peacekeepers.

The UN said Israel launched a barrage of air strikes on Beirut on November 7, killing three civilian, after Lebanonโ€™s Hezbollah said it carried out a missile attack targeting a military base near Israelโ€™s Ben Gurion International Airport on Nov 6.


The Malaysian Armed Forces โ€œwill continue to monitor the situation closely and will provide updates regarding the incident as they become available,โ€ the statement said adding it โ€œremains committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of its personnel while carrying out peacekeeping missions under the United Nations banner,โ€ it added.

Two hundred and twenty Malbatt 850-12 arrived in Lebanon on November 6 after they left Subang early in the evening, Malaysian time.

Meanwhile, a low loader carrying two Adnan ACV from 7 Renjer DiRaja was damaged after it skidded off the road on the Karak highway on November 7. No injuries were reported among the low loader crew.

— Malaysian Defence

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13 Comments

  1. The IDF gave a very warm ‘welcome’ to the new guys on the block. “Welcome to Hell on Earth!”

    So what I said about dread for them was a portent after all.

  2. It is clear to the world that the UN is incapable of action when it’s dealing with Israel & the US. We should not send our personnel to the middle east without proper equipments. The IDF attack everybody indiscriminately, they even shoot dogs in panic mode.Oct 7 for example it was the idf gunship that killed most of the civilians at the music festivals, shooting jn all directions. Abandon UNIFIL and focus our efforts to guard our own borders.

  3. Qamarul – “. We should not send our personnel to the middle east without proper equipments”.

    This is silly. They have the gear they need for their mandate and their mandate does not include open combat with another country.

    Qamarul – ” was the idf gunship that killed most of the civilians at the music festivals, shooting jn all directions”

    Interesting. Have a good source for that?

    Baby heads were not cut off and several things which allegedly happebed did not but [see Jeremy Scahill’s analyis on the Intercept] this is the 1st I’ve heard of IDF gunships.

  4. Hear! Hear! Qamarul!
    When the UN mandate and their strict nonconfrontational ROE no longer can protect our men from harm, its time to call time on this shenanigan that we could actually do something to improve the Lebs. Heck if its not IDF even they are stoning our cars! They dont want us there so lets get the hell out!

  5. “their strict nonconfrontational ROE no longer can protect our men from harm”

    Their “their strict nonconfrontational ROE” are based in the fact that they’re for peacekeeping not peace enforcement or to engage in combat. If the mandate is changed to allow troops to engage in combat ops, as in Seirra Leone; Congo and other places; then the dynamics charge but as it stands UNIFIL is there on a peacekeeping mandate in which troops operate under ROEs which enable them to open fire in self defence if attacked.

    “. Heck if its not IDF even they are stoning our cars!”

    It was an isolated incident in an area where our troops were not based. We’ve been there for years and a few incidents does not mean “they dont want us there”. We had incidents [which I can go more into] in Bosnia and Cambodia; didn’t mean they “didn’t want us there”.

  6. Azlan- the official reports on Haaretz website but u need subscription to read it. It is called the โ€œHannibal Directiveโ€. It permits IDF to kill their own citizens or personnel to prevent capture. If you look at the aftermath video of thr village no red cross or st johnโ€™s ambulance were allowed access. Only idf. Gideon Levi a senior journalist of the Haaretz said if an international investigation were allowed at the village they will find most of the shells are american made.

  7. UN peacekeepers injured or dead are part of the risk. Israelis are seeing the UN troops as a hurdle for their ops so they are “playing” a risk game. Israelis wont go too far because the withdraw of the UN troops will make then on the loser side in international politics.

  8. “We had incidents [which I can go more into]”
    We also werent welcomed in Somalia and overstayed our welcome in Timor Leste until they were hostile towards the peacekeepers post independence. Yes we can into more where UN is no longer wanted. If an “interim” force has been there for nearly 50 years, yes 50 YEARS(!), the problem lies deeper than just a “interim” solution that doesnt seem to end. If other countries want to be there, fine. But no more us, its done and time to leave.

  9. “We also werent welcomed in Somalia and overstayed our welcome in Timor Leste until they were hostile towards the peacekeepers post independence”.

    Back to Lebanon, a couple of incidents where are troops are not based gives an indication that we are not welcomed by the Lebanese population as a whole.

    You are mistaken. East Timor asked us to stay, we declined. How could we have been unwelcomed when we helped quell the unrest? In Somalia, who’s to say we were unwelcomed with the locals? The UN left because of the situation created by the warlords, not because the ordinary Somalian did not want the UN there.

  10. “Which makes it 50M-60M dollars per unit”

    Then write to your MP or the Foreign Ministry. As far as we go; our reputation/credibility is on the line, given our long involvement with the UN. We will not withdraw unilaterally. Even at the height of the troubles in Bosnia when our men were in greater danger and cane under fire in more occasions than in Lebanon; we did not leave.

  11. In reference to your so called “โ€œtheir strict nonconfrontational ROE”; UN troops can fire back and the reasin they are “nonconfrontational” is because they’re there on a orwfemdking; not warmaking mandate. Now depending on the mandate UN troops can engage in combat [Sierra Leone, Congo and other places]. In 2014 Filipino troops in the Golan engaged in combat after they were surrounded and fired upon; per their ROE.

  12. Typo – ” If other countries want to be there, fine. But no more us, its done and time to leave.”

  13. “. If an โ€œinterimโ€ force has been there for nearly 50 years, yes 50 YEARS(!), the problem lies deeper than just a โ€œinterimโ€ solution that doesnt seem to end”

    That is a policy decision; totally unrelated to your claims that troops “can’t shoot back” and that we’re not “welcomed” there based on a few incidents over the years in areas where our troops have to ties to the local community. By and large UNIFIL is welcomed by the majority of people who reside in southern Lebanon because it serves a purpose. If you go back over the years; from the 1980’s right up to Grapes of Wrath in 1996 [I think] the presence of UNIFIL has had a positive affect; despite the issues it faces and its limitations.

    As long as the Sheba farms issue is not resolved [which Israel insists belongs to Syria] and the Palestinian issue is unresolved there will be the need for UNIFIL: as in other areas which have had a longstanding UN presence.

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