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French troops leave for Lebanon
20/08/2006 13:15 - (SA)
Toulon - About 150 French troops departed France on Sunday bound for Lebanon where they are to reinforce UN peacekeepers charged with preventing further conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.
Maritime officials said the troops set sail from the southern port of Toulon, and would arrive in Lebanon on Thursday or Friday to join an advance element of 50 French troops who landed there on Saturday.
The troops are military engineers whose job will include repairing roads damaged by bombardments and clearing unexploded bombs and mines.
They are to be deployed "close to the Israeli border," their commander, Colonel Christophe Issac, said.
"Our mission, which still has some details to be defined, will be to support Unifil (the UN Interim Force in Lebanon) and Lebanese army forces as they redeploy in the area of southern Lebanon," he said.
Another soldier, Lieutenant Colonel Laurent Romeur, said their mission should last "two to four months, but we are preparing to stay another two months beyond that."
The deployment is far below what was expected from France when it co-wrote a UN Resolution 1701 with the United States calling for a combat-ready UN force of up to 15 000 troops to bring peace to southern Lebanon.
That resolution, passed unanimously just over a week ago, led to a ceasefire and the withdrawal of most of Israel's forces after 34 days of war with Hezbollah Shiite Muslim guerrillas.
France had been expected to offer 2 500 to 4 000 soldiers to the force, but President Jacques Chirac has made a preliminary offer of just 200 troops while leaving open the option of sending more later.
- AFP
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