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Lebanese army to move to flashpoint

Posted on: Friday, 18 August 2006, 02:28 CDT

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese army troops prepared to move on Friday to the edge of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, the main flashpoint for fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas before the war that a U.N. truce has halted.

Trying to consolidate the five-day-old truce, the United Nations said it had received substantial offers of more troops for Lebanon, but was disappointed that France was not ready to form the backbone of the expanded peacekeeping force.

"We had hoped -- we make no secret of it -- that there would be a stronger French contribution," Mark Malloch Brown, the U.N. deputy secretary-general, said after a meeting in New York of more than 40 potential troop-contributing countries.

"Others have come forward and we are pretty convinced we've got the elements here of a strong force."

Security sources said the Lebanese troops would 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.

The Lebanese army began deploying south of the Litani River, about 20 km (13 miles) from the border with Israel, on Thursday 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.

At least 1,110 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis were killed in the conflict that erupted after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

ADVANCE FORCE

The United Nations, which is mandated to add 13,000 troops to the 2,000-strong UNIFIL force already in south Lebanon, hopes to field an advance force of 3,500 extra soldiers in two weeks, despite France's refusal to provide a large contingent.

"The show is on the road," Malloch Brown told reporters. Enough troops had been offered, but issues of timing and quality remained. "Are they the right battalions with the right skills and equipment?" he asked.

French President Jacques Chirac said he would dispatch only 200 army engineers in addition to the 200 already part of UNIFIL, which is commanded by a French general.

The focus has now moved to Italy, Spain and Belgium, which can move forces to Lebanon quickly to meet the 15-day deadline.

All three nations are studying draft rules of engagement for the force that is supposed to monitor the truce and support the Lebanese army deployment as Israeli troops withdraw.

Germany and Denmark offered maritime and border patrols and Indonesia, Malaysia and Nepal, among others, offered ground troops, the participants at the U.N. meeting said. The United States will aid in planning and logistical support.

Hizbollah fighters have melted away as the Lebanese army arrives, but they have not left the south or given up the rocket launchers they used to bombard Israel during the conflict.

Malloch Brown said Hizbollah's disarmament required an agreement between the Shi'ite Muslim movement and the Lebanese government, which contains two Hizbollah cabinet ministers.

U.N. peacekeepers would only act forcefully if they met small armed groups that refused to put down their guns, he said.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinian militants near Bethlehem after a nearly two-hour standoff, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said the two Islamic Jihad members were shot and killed after they resisted arrest and fired on the soldiers. The Palestinian security sources and witnesses said more than 50 soldiers had surrounded the pair, who had hidden in a cave outside a village east of Bethlehem.

Source: REUTERS

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