Israeli soldier killed, 3 injured in old IDF minefield: spokesman

    JERUSALEM, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier was killed and three injured early Wednesday as IDF troops operating in southern Lebanon walked into a minefield, an IDF spokesman told Xinhua.

    Around 1 hour early Wednesday morning, the soldiers from Givati Brigade walked into an old IDF minefield, which was built in the past to prevent Lebanese gunmen from infiltrating, triggering explosion of two mines, the spokesman said.

    However, the spokesman had no idea about when the mines were planted by IDF.

    The three troops hurt in the incident were airlifted to Haifa's Rambam Hospital for treatment.

    The IDF troops were engaged in a route activity about two kilometers north to the Israel-Lebanon border.

    The IDF is carrying out investigation into under what circumstances did the troops unknowingly walked into the minefield.

    It will also look into the possibility that the force made a navigational error, or alternately, that the minefield was not clearly marked on maps given to the troops.

    Meanwhile, IDF reservists who fought in Lebanon have already complained that maps they were using during the fighting with Hezbollah were not up-to-date, with some structures not marked at all, which led to great confusion and in some case resulted in friendly fire incidents. Enditem ¡¡