2020 Operation Amitie in Lebanon

In early August 2020, Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, was affected by devastating explosions. The center of the capital was heavily damaged; over 200 people died, more than 6,000 were wounded. In response to the disaster, France sent an important aid and military assistance to Lebanon in mid-August, boarded on a French ship Tonnerre and several aircraft, as part of Operation Amitie (Operation Friendship).

A military engineer task force was also formed, called Groupement Terre Ventoux (GT Ventoux, Ground Force Ventoux), and was shipped on board of Tonnerre to Lebanon in mid-August too. The force is composed of 390 elements coming from five French engineer regiments. An important part of these men are legionnaires from the Foreign Legion’s 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG) and 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG). The ground force’s HQ consists entirely of 2e REG’s staff and the whole GT Ventoux is commanded by Colonel Antoine de la Bardonnie, the 2e REG’s commanding officer.

As part of Operation Amitie, France has sent around 1,200 tons of humanitarian aid to Beirut since mid-August, as well as 390 military personnel (GT Ventoux) and another 130 military personnel + 3 dogs (frogmen, firemen, rescue workers + dog handlers) to assist Lebanese authorities.

The main task of GT Ventoux, coming with about 50 tracked and wheeled heavy equipment, is to restore accessibility to the city’s main port, the nearest quarters, as well as to the important bus terminal. They also have to clean up the large site of warehouses located in the epicenter of the explosions. They are supported by a mine-clearing diver team (GPD) providing underwater operations, and by marine teams equipped with sonars to search the port’s waters. Besides, the military engineers from GT Ventoux are currently cleaning up the most damaged shools nearby the port, too.

The French have had connections to Lebanon since the Christian crusades of the 11th century. At that time, they were supporting local Catholic Christians (Maronites), that had lived there for 600 years already. Several crusader states were established along the Syrian and Lebanese coasts. The region was taken over by the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) in the early 16th century. The French openly intervened in Lebanon with their troops in 1860, after the massacres of Maronite Christians by the local Druze tribe, and forced the Ottomans to form a Lebanese autonomous Christian region. In late 1918, with the end of the Ottoman empire, the French had arrived in Lebanon and ruled the region until 1941. In 1982, they returned to Lebanon (again with the Foreign Legion) as a peace-keeping force, and have stayed there since then. In Beirut, there are thousands of French citizens still resident there in nowadays.

Colonel Antoine de la Bardonnie - 2020 Operation Amitie in Lebanon
Colonel Antoine de la Bardonnie from the 2e REG, the commander of GT Ventoux in Beirut, August 2020.
2020 Operation Amitie in Lebanon
GT Ventoux during clean-up operations in Beirut, August 2020.
2020 Operation Amitie in Lebanon
GT Ventoux during clean-up operations in Beirut, August 2020.
2020 Operation Amitie in Lebanon
GT Ventoux during clean-up operations in Beirut, August 2020.
2020 Operation Amitie in Lebanon
GT Ventoux during clean-up operations in Beirut, August 2020.
2020 Operation Amitie in Lebanon
GT Ventoux during clean-up operations in Beirut, August 2020.

Photo credit: Armee de Terre

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2e REG: An exercise for commandos
1er REG + 1er REC: Deployments in 2020
1er REG + 2e REG: Mission in Beirut