Top US general in Mideast visits Lebanon to monitor first withdrawal of Israeli troops
A top US military officer visited Beirut on Wednesday to monitor the withdrawal of the first Israeli troops from Lebanon under a ceasefire agreement reached last month, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) says.
Army General Michael Kurilla, CENTCOM’s commander, visited the monitoring headquarters in Beirut for the ceasefire and met with the commander of Lebanon’s armed forces, General Joseph Aoun, CENTCOM says in a post on X.
Kurilla was there to monitor “the ongoing first Israeli Defense Forces withdrawal and Lebanese Armed Forces replacement in Al Khiam, Lebanon, as part of the agreement,” CENTCOM says.
“This is an important first step in the implementation of a lasting cessation of hostilities and lays the foundation for continued progress,” Kurilla says.
The US and France serve as monitors of a 60-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah that calls for a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops after more than a year of fighting that began when the Lebanese terror group began launching attacks a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel.