10 years have passed since the 8 November of the 2006 when in Tibnin, then the headquarters of the Italian blue helmets in Lebanon, General Paolo Gerometta, then commander of the cavalry brigade "Pozzuolo del Friuli" assumed the command of Sector West of Unifil receiving the deliveries from the rear-admiral Claudio Confessore, commander of the Joint Landing Force-Lebanon.
The ceremony was held in the presence of the then Unifil commander, General Alain Pellegrini who, shortly afterwards, ceded the command of the UN mission to General Claudio Graziano.
This morning at Shama, the current headquarters, the commander of Sector West General Ugo Cillo (79 ° commander of the Cavalry Brigade), on the sidelines of the flag-raising ceremony, wanted to remember those moments, sanctioning, in fact, the tenth anniversary of Operation "Leonte".
The "Pozzuolo del Friuli" started the "Leonte 1" and ten years later, at the fifth mandate in the land of the cedars, it reaches this important milestone with the "Leonte XXI".
The Italian blue helmets have continued incessantly, since then, to carry out the task assigned to them and sanctioned by the UN Security Council 1701 resolution.
In the past ten years the Italian military has carried out over 231 thousand operational activities (patrols, observation points, joint activities with the Lebanese Armed Forces), carried out over 750 military civil cooperation projects (remaking of sections of roads, public lighting, renovation of schools, clinics), carried out beyond 1100 demining interventions (demining and reclamation of unexploded ordnance) this given up to the 2013, since then the activity is carried out by Genio units belonging to other contingents, routes 21.300 thousand kilometers.
The Italian brigades that have alternated in these years have been in addition to the "Pozzuolo del Friuli": the paratroopers brigade "Folgore", battleship "Ariete", bersaglieri "Garibaldi", aircraft "Friuli", mechanized "Aosta", "Pinerolo" , Granatieri di Sardegna ”, alpine“ Taurinense ”.
The cavalry brigade took over last 17 October, alternating the "Sassari" brigade, the mission guide in a land already known and for which, said General Cillo: "we will continue to work steadily to guarantee the Lebanese people the tranquility it deserves ”.
In addition to the Italian contingent, the Sector West of Unifil is composed of the contingents of: Armenia, Brunei, Estonia, Finland, Ghana, South Korea, Ireland, Malaysia, Serbia, Slovenia and Tanzania.
