Lebanese Deploy Amidst Worries Of Real Strength
Joseph S. Mayton - All Headline News Middle East Correspondent Beirut, Lebanon (AHN) - With Lebanese troops being deployed Thursday for the first time in decades, the quality of the military is being questioned. According to "The Military Balance," an annual report published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Lebanese soldiers lack significant firepower and fighting experience. In order to comply with the UN resolution that ended fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, Lebanon is to dispatch 15,000 troops to act as a buffer between Israel and the militant group. The same report says that most of the 60,000 strong standing military are more police officers than soldiers. According to the institute only about 25,000 have experience from the 1975-1990 civil war and the army is a peacekeeping force rather an offensive power. Most analysts say that the Lebanese military will play little to no role in the disarmament of Hizbollah. The army has 310 main battle tanks, mainly old Soviet-made T-54s and T-55s, 24 helicopters, 1,257 armoured personnel carriers and 541 artillery pieces. There is also a paramilitary force of 13,000 men, an air force of 1,100 and a still smaller navy of around 1,000.
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