127 Irish troops leave for Lebanon

THE bulk of the Irish contingent bound for Lebanon will fly out this morning.

The 127 men and women will leave on a direct charter flight to Beirut.

They will be met on arrival by their commanding officer lieutenant colonel Billy Harrington, who flew out last week with a 30-strong advance party.

The 158 members of the defence forces are tasked with protecting a Finnish contingent of army engineers in the eastern part of south Lebanon.

The Irish and Finnish are part of a UN force tasked with stabilising the security situation in south Lebanon. They will aid in humanitarian and reconstruction work and enable the Lebanese government and army to assume control over the area.

Lebanon was plunged into intense conflict in July following military activity by Hezbollah and Israel.

Defence minister Willie O’Dea has described the current security risk as “low, but volatile.”

Last Monday week, the advance party flew out to receive the kit and equipment sent out by ship earlier this month.

The party brought the equipment to the Irish camp in Ibil as Saqy in the north east sector of south Lebanon.

Mr O’Dea has said there was a remote risk posed by al-Qaida, which is reported to have a number of training camps in the country.

The terrorist group has made threats to the UN force in Lebanon.