Reuters BEIRUT: Lebanon’s armed forces acquired three U.S.
helicopters worth US$26 million on Thursday to help in efforts to stop
Syria’s civil war spilling over its border, along with almost US$29
million of British aid as EU countries also step up their support.

The
Lebanese armed forces have now received a total of nine Huey II
multi-mission helicopters from the United States as part of US$1.3
billion in security assistance given since 2004, U.S. interim Ambassador
Richard H. Jones said.

“We have no plans to slow down or alter that level of support,” Jones said at Beirut’s military air base.

Fighting
between Islamic State and al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front militants often
overlaps Lebanon’s mountainous northern border with Syria, where a civil
war is now in its fifth year.

Fighters briefly overran the
northern Lebanese town of Arsal in 2014 before withdrawing to the hills
after clashes with the army. Fighting in the border area killed at least
32 Nusra and Islamic State fighters this week.

The helicopters
will improve the army’s ability to quickly reinforce “remote areas of
tension along the border in support of the army’s fight against
terrorists”, Jones said.

Lebanon has a weak government and a
number of nations support its armed forces, concerned that regional
conflict and a power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia could again
destabilise a country which emerged from its own civil war 26 years ago.

On
a visit to Lebanon on Thursday, British Foreign Secretary Philip
Hammond announced a further US$22 million for border guard training
through to 2019 and US$6.5 million for general training of 5,000
Lebanese troops. “Lebanon is an important part of the front line against
terrorism,” Hammond said.

“We are delighted by the way the UK
support is being translated into strengthened border security and is
enabling the armed forces to take the fight to Daesh and keep Lebanon
safe from the incursions of Daesh,” he said, referring to Islamic State.

EU
foreign policy head Federica Mogherini, who visited Lebanon last week,
said that Lebanon’s security was important for Europe’s safety too and
the EU was willing to expand its support for the Lebanese armed forces.

In
February Saudi Arabia suspended a US$3 billion aid package for the
Lebanese army in what an official called a response to Beirut’s failure
to condemn attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran.

Lebanon’s
Iranian-backed group Hezbollah is also a significant military presence
in the country, with extensive combat experience. It fought Israel in an
inconclusive 2006 war and is supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s
forces in Syria.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Issam Abdallah; Editing by Mark Heinrich)