26th Libre Hidalgo

On November 21st, 2016, at the Miguel de Cervantes base in Marjayoun, the authority transfer ceremony took place, so the 26 Spanish contingent Lebanon Brigade of the``LIBRE HIDALGO´´ Operation (BRILIB 26) started its mission. This unit has been made on the basis of 10th “Guzmán el Bueno” Mechanized Infantry Brigade (BRIMZ, in Spanish). It should be noted that the contingent has personnel of new units integrated to its structure that come from the "Garellano" n. 45 Infantry Regiment, with base in Munguía (Vizcaya, Spain), and from the Armored Cavalry Group “ALMANSA” 2/10 from the "Córdoba" n. 10 Armored Regiment.

This is the 5th time that the 10th Brigade forms a contingent for the Libre Hidalgo. It is made up of 600 military personnel from which around 450 belong to the Brigade and the rest comes from other units from 20 Spanish provinces. The biggest of the units that do not come from Cordoba is the Logistics Support Group n. 21 from Seville that, along with the 10th LG, has worked as basis to form the SP contingent Logistic Unit.

UNIFIL, deployed in the South of Lebanon, is composed of 2 sectors; the East, led by Spain and West, led by Italy. It has also a reserve led by France. The area led by Spain is under the command of one-star general officer, Brig. Gen., Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz. As main units he has 4 Battalions groups from India, Indonesia, Nepal and Spain. The Spanish contingent core is located at the “Miguel de Cervantes” base, where the Sector´s HQ, the Senior Staff of the Protected Light Tactical Group, the Cavalry´s Unit, the Engineers’ Unit, the Logistics’ Unit, the Signals’ Unit, the HQ´s Unit, the base Support´s Unit and Guardia Civil as Military Police are found. Also, at the Spanish base there are personnel from other 8 countries besides Spain that form the East area: Brazil, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Serbia and Salvador. 

Our Units patrol by foot and by vehicle to permanently monitor the line that separates Lebanon from Israel; the Blue Line. They also set up observatories and do other activities in association with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). All these activities are targeted to warrant the resolutions’ compliance 1701 of the United Nations and avoid to get into situations that can lead to an escalation of the surge tension between both parts.