Loud and clear singing of army songs echoed and colorful banners fluttered in the barracks of an engineer regiment. An inaugural ceremony for the establishment of the fourth batch of Chinese peacekeeping engineer battalion to Lebanon composed of 275 officers and men from a group army stationed in Chongqing was held on the morning of April 22. The peacekeepers will leave for Lebanon in late May in two groups for an eight-month peacekeeping mission.

　　In order to fulfill the peacekeeping mission with flying colors, the group army selected military officers with proficient skills and abundant experience as the core members soon after it received the order from the superior, and engaged them in pertinent trainings covering 138 special subjects such as minesweeping, tactics skill, defense combat, engineering construction, and battlefield first-aid. And in order to ensure them good health, it also gave the officers and men a complete physical examination and had them vaccinated against possible epidemics.

　　According to Cui Changjun, political commissar of the group army, 90% of military officers of this peacekeeping engineer battalion are graduates from full-time universities in engineering major, while the soldiers are outstanding NCOs with proficient professional skills. At the same time, 51 top technicians of the third batch of peacekeepers will stay on to perform the duty together with them. At present, all the peacekeepers have completed their professional trainings of foreign language and field operation survival, and they have passed all the pre-task examinations.

　　By Wang Yintao and Yang Pengfei

　　(Apr 24, PLA Daily) 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Editor: Fan Aifeng