Last update - 00:00 16/09/2006
Report: Russian battalion to spend up to 3 months in Lebanon
By The Associated Press
MOSCOW - A Russian engineer battalion will spend no more than three months in Lebanon helping repair the war damage, news reports said Saturday.
Senior Russian Defense Ministry official Lt. Gen. Ivan Tsygankov said that the battalion will be sent to Lebanon in early October, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported. He said that the battalion would carry its own supplies that would allow it to rebuild six facilities.
"We are planning to complete the restoration work in Lebanon in no more than three months," the agencies quoted Tsygankov as saying Saturday on a ground-setting trip to Lebanon. "That is the maximum term possible."
Tsygankov said the battalion would be deployed near Saida and would restore bridges located some 30 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of Saida.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov had said earlier that Russia would send a battalion of up to 400 engineers and experts at disarming unexploded ordnance. He said it would not be involved in peacekeeping operations.
Russia accused Israel of using excessive force in its 34-day war in Lebanon, which caused widespread damage to its infrastructure and left unexploded bombs and other weaponry scattered throughout the country.
Some 3,250 United Nations peacekeepers are fanned out across the south of Lebanon, part of a force planned to reach 15,000.