French Troops Begin Heading South
Joseph S. Mayton - All Headline News Middle East Correspondent Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - French troops have begun to deploy to the southern portions of Lebanon. On Sunday the first French battalion assigned to the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country began to move south from Beirut to take up positions in Bint Jbeil. Bint Jbeil was a stronghold of Hezbollah before the Shiite group's war with Israel that began on July 12, following the abduction of two Israeli soldiers. According to the UN, around two-thirds of the French troops will be based in Baraashit, in the hills above Bint Jbeil, that saw some of the heaviest fighting in the country during the 34-day war between Hezbollah guerrillas and the Jewish state to the south. France has offered to send approximately 2,000 troops to the country as part of an overall force of up to 15,000. The UN troops are deploying to southern Lebanon with an equal number of Lebanese troops in order to police the August 14 ceasefire.
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