Alain Pellegrini

Who is Alain Pellegrini?

Alain Pellegrini is a French general.

A former student of the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, Pellegrini graduated from general staff schools before being appointed in Africa and the Middle East, and commanding a regiment of the troupes de marine in Fréjus. He served as adviser to the Defence Minister of Benin, and as the Defence Attaché at the French Embassy in Beirut. He took part to both the UNPROFOR and the IFOR in 1995 and 96, and worked for the implentation of the Dayton Agreement in Sarajevo and Mostar.

In 2000, as a colonel, he headed the Africa and Middle East Division at the Direction du Renseignement Militaire in Paris.

From July 2001, he was counsellor of the Chef d’état-major des armées for Africa and Middle East.

On 26 January 2004, he took command of the UNIFIL, succeeding to General Lalit Mohan Tewari.

On 25 July 2006, a UN observation post was attacked by Israeli forces after Israel claimed that Hezbollah fired rockets from the position. An Israeli plane bombed the post with a precision-guided bomb, and Israeli artillery shelled the post 14 times within six hours. A total of four UN observers were killed. General Pellegrini said that the attack was "probably deliberate", and that he had personally phoned the Israelis "five or six times" without being able to reach past secretaries. Israel, however, maintains that Hezbollah had launched rockets in the vicinity, and four Hezbollah fighters had taken shelter in a bunker under the position.