These rockets are near the border with Israel:
Surveillance footage, obtained by The Times, reveals that Hezbollah fighters desperately tried to salvage rockets and other munitions from the site, while obstructions were placed in the way of Unifil peacekeepers coming to investigate.
Alain Le Roy, the head of UN peacekeeping operations, told the Security Council last month that the ammunition explosion amounted to a “serious violation” of UN resolution 1701, which imposed a ceasefire and arms ban after the 2006 war.
“A number of indications suggest that the depot belonged to Hezbollah, and, in contrast to previous discoveries by Unifil and the Lebanese Armed Forces of weapons and ammunition, that it was not abandoned but, rather, actively maintained,” he said.
Unifil’s mandate is due to be renewed by the Security Council by the end of this month and Israel is pressing for the peacekeepers to be more robust in stopping Hezbollah and other armed groups form infiltrating the UN-patrolled region south of the Litani river.
But while diplomats negotiate, many believe that it is too late to stop Hezbollah’s build-up.
The group, armed, trained and financed by Iran, has been engaged in a wide-scale recruitment, training and rearmament drive since the end of the 2006 war with Israel.
Although basic training on handling and firing weapons as well as field craft is taught at ad hoc camps in the mountains flanking the Bekaa Valley, more specialised courses are carried out in Iran. Hundreds of fighters have travelled to Iran since 2006, many of them on multiple trips, to acquire skills in bomb-making, anti-tank missiles, sniping and firing surface-to-surface rockets.