Russian combat engineers working in Lebanon to repair infrastructure devastated during a month of fighting this summer between Hizbollah and the Israeli military, will leave the country in a month and a half, the defense minister is quoted by RIA Novosti news agency Friday.

About 100 bridges and 60 highways were destroyed in the fighting, which claimed some 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israeli lives. Russian sappers, who pledged to work 10 hours a day to rebuild eight bridges and adjacent roads in two months, started the reconstruction effort on October 9.

“The first two bridges have been repaired,” said Sergei Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister. “All eight bridges will be repaired in a month and a half, and then all our servicemen will leave Lebanon.”

The upper house of the Russian parliament approved sending a battalion of combat engineers to Lebanon on September 26.

Ivanov earlier said that Russia’s 308-man contingent in Lebanon will not participate in the UN peacekeeping group, but will operate on the basis of bilateral agreements between the Russian and Lebanese governments.

Ivanov also said Friday that Russia will receive 500 million rubles ($18.6 mln) from Lebanon for assistance provided.

“Aside from the economic effect, this operation will allow Russia to promote its image in the Middle East,” the minister said during a meeting in parliament’s upper house, RIA Novosti reported.

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