MOSCOW. Sept 21 (Interfax-AVN) - The 100th Russian separate engineer battalion made up of some 300 servicemen will fly to Lebanon in early October, deputy head of the Russian armed forces' procurements and logistics department Lt. Gen. Ivan Tsygankov told Interfax-AVN on Thursday.
The general led a reconnaissance team of the Russian Defense Ministry, which visited Lebanon on September 13-17 to determine the scale of reconstruction.
"Following the visit, it was decided to somewhat reduce the size of the battalion, which would go to Lebanon. We will need up to 300 servicemen, instead of 350-400, to rebuild six vehicular bridges near Saida under an agreement with Lebanon," he said.
"The precise date for delivering the battalion to Lebanon by military transport planes has not been chosen, but Deputy Premier and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov ordered the battalion to be ready to start the reconstructions in Lebanon by October 10," Tsygankov said.