China to assign additional peacekeeping engineering detachment to Lebanon

China will assign a 200-person construction engineering detachment to supplement the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), according to the optimized adjustment plan of the UN peacekeeping mission areas.

The first echelon of the detachment was set up at an engineering regiment of the 13th Group Army of the Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLAA) on June 18, 2014.

Tian Shengping, leader of the detachment, introduced that the detachment consisting of two plane construction platoons, two three-dimensional construction platoons and one service support platoon will be deployed in Tyre, a city in southern Lebanon, at the end of July 2014 to carry out the missions including fortification construction and maintenance, infrastructure emergency repair, "blue line" peg planting and humanitarian aid in the areas along the border between Lebanon and Israel.

Pu Yi, political commissar of the engineering regiment, said that the regiment, having assigned five detachments successively to Lebanon to carry out international peacekeeping mission, boasts rich peacekeeping experience and stronger technical strength. After the establishment of the peacekeeping detachment, its officers and men will be organized to conduct training and examinations on more than 20 kinds of work categories.