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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: September 28, 2006 |
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Dozens of Spanish troops disembarked from a Spanish military ship docked in the port of Beirut on Thursday, the latest reinforcements to a growing U.N.-led peacekeeping mission monitoring the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
Some 170 troops and engineers arrived in Lebanon, along with 35 containers of military and building materials and 15 vehicles, said Alberto Gonzales, an official working with the Spanish contingent in Lebanon.
He said the troops would head to south Lebanon to join hundreds of other Spanish peacekeepers currently based near the Christian town of Marjayoun.
Some 600 Spanish troops arrived in Lebanon earlier this month, in the first phase of a Spanish deployment eventually to total about 1,100 in the coming weeks.
They join a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, as it expands from 2,000 soldiers to 15,000 under a new Security Council resolution.
The U.N. force will patrol a buffer zone in south Lebanon to prevent hostilities from breaking out again between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
Spain will be the third-largest contributor to the U.N. force. France, Italy, Ghana and India currently have the largest contingents in UNIFIL.
The 34-day war, which ended in a U.N.-brokered cease-fire on Aug. 14, killed more than 1,000 people -- mostly Lebanese civilians. |
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