The World - News from Aug. 28, 1986

The French troop transport ship Ourgagan, which had been on its way to allied exercises in the Atlantic, was ordered to the Mediterranean a day after Premier Jacques Chirac gave notice that France might withdraw from a U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, military sources said in Paris. The sources noted that the ship could be used to evacuate the 1,400-man French contingent from southern Lebanon. Chirac said that it is “absurd to maintain in these conditions” the entire 10-nation U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, and “notably the French” units. Eighteen French soldiers have been wounded in a series of shoot-outs since Aug. 11.