United Nations peacekeeping troops started Friday to deploy in the former Israeli-occupied border zone in southern Lebanon, a UN spokesman told AFP.
The deployment in the border areas of Manara and Yarine comes as Lebanese and UN experts were still meeting to decide whether Israel had ended its border violations.
The United Nations Interim Forces in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) has deployed Ghanaian peacekeepers in the border areas of Manara and Irish soldiers in Yarine, the UNIFIL spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
Each force was made up of 25 peacekeepers backed by armored vehicles and jeeps, he said.
"There will be a second redeployment of UNIFIL troops planned in four other areas in the afternoon," he said.
In Manara, the Ghanaian troops took up position, just a few yards away from Israeli soldiers behind barbed wire, on a hilltop overlooking a post erected by Hizbollah group, an AFP photographer saw.
Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon after a 22-year occupation on May 24. The deployment of UNIFIL troops in the zone has been delayed several times due to allegations of Israeli violations of the borderline during the retreat.
Lebanese security sources said the decision to re-deploy UNIFIL troops first in Yarine and Manara came "because there were repeated violations in these two areas."
As news broke of the UNIFIL deployment, a senior Lebanese official told AFP that Lebanese and UNIFIL experts were still meeting to decide whether Israel had rectified its last two remaining encroachments in Yarine and Manara.
On Thursday, Israel corrected two encroachments in the areas of Sheikh Abbad and Labbouneh - BEIRUT (AFP)
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