With the surrender of honors to the banner of the "Lancers of Montebello" regiment (8th), which leaves the mission in Lebanon, and to the highly decorated war flag of the 3rd Bersaglieri regiment of Teulada, which has just arrived in the "Land of the cedars", the alternation ceremony between Colonel Giuseppe Cacciaguerra and Colonel Carlo Di Pinto in command of Italbatt, the maneuvering unit of the Italian contingent of UNIFIL, took place in the Italian base of Al Mansouri.
General Andrea Di Stasio, commander of Unifil's West sector, sealed the event with the symbolic passage of the United Nations flag between the releasing commander and the incoming commander.
During the ceremony, a minute of silence was observed in memory of the victims of the tragic explosion that took place yesterday in the port of Beirut in which hundreds of people lost their lives and thousands more, including a military member of the Italian contingent, were injured. The mandate of the 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment begins in a period characterized by the difficult socio-political and economic context of Lebanon, further aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic which in these days prompted the Lebanese government to declare a new lockdown.
Despite the health emergency, Italbatt, adopting the envisaged individual provisions, will continue to carry out operational activities, including those in cooperation with the Lebanese armed forces, adapting them to the situation, ensuring day after day the monitoring and control of the cessation of hostilities and guaranteeing compliance with the ceasefire in the area through checkpoints and observation posts, but also through patrols in the coastal area south of the city of Tire and along the "blue line", the dividing line that separates Lebanon from Israel.
Support to the local population will continue through civil-military cooperation projects in the field of health care in all twenty-four municipalities present in the area of responsibility and the promotion of educational activities in schools, also through the use of modern means of communication.
From today, in the ranks of Italbatt, in addition to the Bersaglieri of the command of the 3rd regiment and of the XVIII battalion "Poggio Scanno", the soldiers of the "Cavalleggeri Guide" squadron group (19th) of Salerno, of the logistic battalion of the logistic regiment will operate " Garibaldi ”of Persano and specialized assets of the 5th sapper engineering regiment of Macomer.
