LEBANON: Deployment of Lebanese troops to southern parts of country on fifth day of UN ceasefire

Troops continued to fan out across southern parts of Lebanon on Friday (August 18), securing vital areas and clearing debris for the establishment of command posts. In the village of Qana, where at least 28 civilians were killed in an Israeli air raid last month, troops armed with shovels and other equipment, began setting up their army base. The Lebanese army began deploying south of the Litani River, about 20 km (13 miles) from the border with Israel, on Thursday (August 18) to take over, with the help of an existing U.N. force known as UNIFIL, a region it has not fully controlled for decades. A senior security source said about 4,500 Lebanese troops were already south of the Litani and more units were joining them on Friday as the force builds up to an eventual 15,000. Qana residents welcomed the soldiers. "(I wish for) the deployment of troops in all of Lebanon and it should by the only legitimate authority in the country. We don't accept there to be any weapons except for that of the army. This is what the Lebanese people wish for," said Hussein Aatieh from Qana. "Its is great to have the army, we feel safe. This is the army of our nation," said Zahra Aazan. In the coastal city of Tyre, Lebanese amphibious tanks rolled out of the port to reinforce troops that have arrived there earlier in the week. Hundreds of troops were also deployed to the Marjayoun Army bases to link up with U.N. peacekeepers to take control of Hizbollah strongholds as Israeli forces pulled back after their 34-day war with the guerrillas. But plans to send an expanded U.N. force to the region quickly to cement a tenuous truce were dealt a blow when France said it would contribute only a token number of troops. Over the last few days, more than 100 Lebanese trucks, troop carriers and jeeps streamed across a makeshift bridge on the Litani to the mainly Christian town of Marjayoun, about 8 km (5 miles) from the Israeli border. UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon) said about 800 Lebanese troops have been deployed in the Marjayoun area and some 500 around the town of Tibnin. Hizbollah fighters melted away as Lebanese troops crossed the Litani River, some 20 km (13 miles) from the Israeli border, to take over a region the army has not controlled for decades. In the border towns of Khiam and Hosbaiyeh, Lebanese soldiers were on full swing clearing rubble from the hundreds of buildings and houses flattened by Israeli air strikes. Bombarded for five weeks by Israeli artillery and air strikes, the road south of Lebanon's Litani river is a journey of ruin, lined by huge bomb craters, blasted petrol stations, wrecked houses and crushed cars. Soldiers were also manning destroyed roads still packed with cars full of returning refugees. The 34-day war killed more than 1,100 people in Lebanon and at least 157 Israelis. Hizbollah says Israel also destroyed at least 15,000 homes. That does not include shops or other buildings or the more than $2.5 billion of damaged bridges, roads and other infrastructure. Security sources said the Lebanese troops would also deploy in the village of Shebaa, near the tiny enclave claimed by Lebanon. Israel occupied it when it seized the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war. The United Nations says it belongs to Syria. Hizbollah has repeatedly attacked Israeli troops in the remote 25-sq-km (10-sq-mile) area in the past six years, saying Israel's presence there meant its withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation was incomplete. The Lebanese government requested the United Nations to take control of Shebaa Farms until its status can be resolved, but last week's Security Council resolution that halted Israel's 34-day war with Hizbollah only asks U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to come up with proposals on the issue within 30 days.

ITN Source | August 18, 2006

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