Red Cross Reopens Offices in S. Lebanon
The International Committee of the Red Cross officially reopened its offices Thursday in southern Lebanon after a two-month closure following the kidnaping of a Swiss worker.
Red Cross deputy delegate Mohammed Bizri said two Swiss delegates, identified as Daniel Philippin and Christophe Girod, restarted operations in the southern port cities of Sidon and Tyre.
Girod, who headed the Red Cross office in Tyre before the closure, was among the nine Red Cross personnel who pulled out of Lebanon on Dec. 9, when the mission suspended its operations in the south following the abduction of Peter Winkler.
Winkler, 32, was grabbed by unidentified gunmen in Sidon, 25 miles from Beirut, on Nov. 17. He was freed one month later.
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