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Lebanese Troops Deployed in South, Starts Patrol
In a bid to exercise its sovereignty over the former Israeli-occupied south, the Lebanese government on Wednesday morning deployed in the region its 1,000-strong troops which have started patrol along main roads.
At 7 a.m. local time (0400GMT), some 700 soldiers and security troops arrived at a former barrack of the pro-Israeli South Lebanon Army (SLA) in the city of Marajayoun, 60 kilometers southeast of the country's capital Beirut. The other 300 troops were deployed in the town of Bint Jbeil at the eastern sector of the border.
Bint Jbeil is a predominantly Shiite Muslim township.
At 9 a.m. local time, several armed security forces began to patrol along the key roads near the barrack. Although they refused to answer any question, their smile bespoke the pride to exercise sovereignty on the Lebanese soil.
At 11 a.m. local time, a patrol team on armed vehicles set off from the barrack and patrolled in the central region of southern Lebanon.
A storekeeper near the barrack said he feels much safer by the presence of Lebanese troops in the Christian-populated town.
"We have been waiting for the moment for more than two months," he said.
Lebanese Interior Minister Michel Murr Tuesday issued an order to deploy forces into towns and villages in south Lebanon. The task force, which was set up on June 5, is under the command of the Internal Security Force rather than the Lebanese military command.
The task force will take charge of internal security affairs of towns and villages in the liberated zone, leaving the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to patrol the UN-drawn Blue Line. It is the biggest security consignment ever sent to the area since Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon on May 24 after a 22-year-long occupation.
The Lebanese government has not announced the size of the operation zone of the task force, but it was reported that it will initially cover the western and central sectors of the border line.
Anti-Israeli groups, Hezbollah guerrillas and Amal militiamen, were dismantling their positions and taking down their flags in the area shortly before the deployment. The two groups had taken effective control of the vacated zone after the Israeli pullout.
A Lebanese official, refusing to be identified, said the force will set up checkpoints at key road intersections and dispatch armored patrols to oversee law and order in most of the 750-square-kilometer vacated region.
The government has been under pressure to curtail hostilities across the Fatma Gate border post, where four civilians, including two journalists, were wounded by Israeli gunfire in response to Lebanese youths' stone-throwing.
Lebanon initially said it will put security forces rather than army in southern towns after Israel ended its border encroachments and UNIFIL concluded the first phase of deployment along the UN-drawn Blue Line. The Lebanese forces went into the south before the UNIFIL announced the end of its deployment.
UNIFIL set up 18 positions in the past 10 days and will take over 10 more in the next few days along the Blue Line. UNIFIL spokesman Timour Goksel said that the UNIFIL has not completed its deployment and will decide with the Lebanese government on the next phase of the peacekeepers' roll-out.
The UNIFIL has formally requested Lebanon's consent to set up a deployment position at the Fatma Gate, but the plea is still under consideration.
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