Spanish military personnel strengthen the capabilities of their Lebanese counterparts in the fight against improvised explosive devices

• Since their deployment in June, they have trained more than 200 Lebanese military personnel in various capacities.

A team of instructors (Mobile Training Team -MTT)—made up of five members of the Spanish Army from the XVI Canary Islands Brigade—was deployed at the beginning of summer to the Sadhiye military base in Sidon (Lebanon). Their mission is to contribute, together with France, to the training and improvement of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in various combat capabilities. To date, they have trained more than 200 Lebanese military personnel in integrated and specific courses on the location and deactivation of Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED).

The aim of this international training and cooperation activity is to increase the operational capacity of the Lebanese military so that, in the medium term, they can autonomously assume full responsibility for the security of the territory and population in southern Lebanon, replacing the United Nations troops deployed in the country (UNIFIL).

On this occasion, two types of courses were taught. On the one hand, courses taught jointly with the French contingent in June and July, attended by 90 Lebanese military personnel. On the other hand, C-IED awareness courses between July and September, in which 113 students participated. This combined training, delivered by French and Spanish military personnel, is expected to run for a year and a half until the planned training objectives are achieved.

Spanish training of the LAF

The Spanish MTT team is integrated into the French unit that leads the training of the LAF at the Sadhiye (Sidon) military base, located north of the Litani River. These training activities are carried out within the framework of the Military Technical Committee for Lebanon (MTC4L), which was established in March 2024 and is made up of a group of countries, including Spain, whose main objective is to coordinate their efforts to increase the efficiency and operational capacity of the Lebanese military.

These efforts take the form of several working groups on different topics, such as infrastructure, civil-military cooperation, and operational and tactical training. Among the objectives to be achieved is the recruitment and training of 6,000 new Lebanese soldiers, subject to financial resources, infrastructure, and recruitment levels. Of these, some 1,500 are expected to be deployed south of the Litani River—the area of operations of the United Nations mission, UNIFIL—to ensure the presence of the State and the security of the population.