REUTERS, Beirut

The Lebanese army said on Saturday that six soldiers were killed and others wounded in an explosion while they were inspecting a weapons depot and dismantling its contents in the southern city of Tyre.

An investigation was underway to determine the cause of the blast, the army added in a statement.

Security sources told Reuters that the explosion was caused by “remnants of the Israeli war” in the coastal city.

Israel dealt major blows to Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah in an offensive last year - the climax of a conflict that began in October 2023 when the group opened fire at Israeli positions on the frontier in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas at the start of the Gaza war.

A US-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel in November ended that conflict.