UNIFIL’s thin blue line

In August 1986, a French soldier from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on sentry duty shot and killed two members of the Amal Movement during an altercation. That night, nine French UNIFIL positions came under attack by Amal gunmen. Over the next month isolated attacks were launched against UNIFIL positions, mainly those manned by the French. In early September 1986, a roadside bomb killed three French soldiers on a morning run, and days later another French soldier died in a bomb attack against his patrol. The slew of attacks led Paris to pull the bulk of its troops, leaving just a small detachment to protect the peacekeeping mission’s headquarters in Naqoura. Given its bloody history with UNIFIL, one would think France would understand more than most the sensitivities and realities of peacekeeping in South Lebanon. But recent French moves to press for a more robust approach in