Posted on 09/03/2006 4:29:16 AM PDT by John Carey
Led by commandos who splashed ashore in black dinghies, a contingent of Italian soldiers landed in southern Lebanon on Saturday in the first substantial strengthening of the U.N. force assigned to guarantee a fragile truce along the border between Israel and Lebanon.
The Italian troops, numbering 880 with 150 trucks and other vehicles, represented a down payment on the 6,900 soldiers that Italy, France and several other European nations have promised to send to create a reinforced version of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, that repeatedly has been denounced by Israel as feckless in the 28 years since it was first deployed.
"This is a new UNIFIL," said Gen. Alain Pellegrini, the French commander of the force.
Reinforcing UNIFIL from its present strength of 2,000 to about 15,000 was a key part of the U.N. cease-fire resolution that stopped a 33-day war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia on Aug. 14. The resolution ordered the strengthened UNIFIL force, armed with tougher rules of engagement, to help a 15,000-strong deployment of Lebanese army troops establish government authority in the Lebanese border hills for the first time in a generation.
The Lebanese Defense Ministry said more than 8,000 Lebanese soldiers have deployed between the Litani River and the border with Israel. By the time the full contingent of 15,000 foreign peacekeepers reaches Lebanon toward the end of this month, a spokesman said, the army's deployment will also have reached full strength. Separately, controls along the border with Syria have been tightened with the dispatch of about 8,500 Lebanese soldiers and Internal Security Forces personnel, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Pass the pasta....
Oh boy. Now those Hezbos are in trouble!!! (i.e., what is the point about sending them in like that???)
Was each black dingy flying a white flag?
Hey, be fair. The Italians did a credible job in the 1991 War and in Iraq's occupation. The French are the new Italians.
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