KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 — Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) personnel in Lebanon were unaffected by Tuesday’s explosion incident in Beirut, said Chief of Defence Force Gen Tan Sri Affendi Buang.
He said that so far, the MAF had yet to receive reports on injuries affecting any of its 216 troops who make up Batallion Malaysia 850-7 (MALBATT 850-7) that is part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) for peacekeeping in the southern part of the Levantine nation.
“At the moment, no (Malaysian) troops are affected,” he told the media after launching the Al-Quran corner at the auditorium of the Tuanku Mizan Military Hospital here today.
He said the Malaysian peacekeeping mission in Lebanon came under the United Nations and that so far no new directives had been issued.
“We will wait for instructions from the UN. it is still too early but MAF is closely monitoring developments and If there is something that might endanger the mission, we may take further action,” he said.
The MALBATT 850-7 team joined the peacekeeping mission on Oct 1, 2019, and is to serve Unifil for a year.
At around 6 pm local time (1600 GMT) Tuesday, the Lebanese capital witnessed a fire followed by a massive blast at a warehouse at its port, where explosive material was believed to have been stored.
The blast triggered widespread destruction across the city and left at least 70 people dead and more than 3,000 injured.
Earlier today, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein in the Twitter post had said that all Malaysians in Lebanon were reported safe.
He said this was confirmed by the Malaysian Embassy in Beirut in its initial report.
At the launch, Affendi has presented 12,060 copies of the Al-Quran from Yayasan Warisan Ummah Ikhlas founder Datuk Hussamuddin Yaacub to be distributed to MAF’s six hospitals and 65 clinics.
Sources: BERNAMA