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More Syrian Troops Leave Lebanon for Home
MASNAA, Lebanon, June 16 (News Agencies) - Around 100 Syrian soldiers and 15 tanks that had been stationed in Lebanon crossed the border here into Syria before dawn Saturday on the third day of a redeployment, Lebanese police said.
"Some 15 tank transports and around 100 soldiers aboard military trucks crossed over at dawn," a Lebanese policeman said.
The troops counted among the forces that have been withdrawn since Thursday from Beirut and surrounding, mainly Christian-populated areas, which are strongholds for the opposition that has been demanding a Syrian troop withdrawal from Lebanon.
Other units that had been pulled out were still bivouacked in the eastern Bekaa valley, where Syrian troops have been stationed since a year after the 1976 outbreak of the Lebanese civil war, which ended in 1990.
A Lebanese official, who asked not to be identified, added that "a number of (military) positions" had been abandoned and "significant materiel" withdrawn overnight.
He did not provide any details.
Meanwhile, Maaronite Church Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, the leading opponent to Syria's military presence, took a wait-and-see approach toward the redeployment, in comments published Saturday in An-Nahar newspaper.
"We must not exaggerate or minimize what has happened on the ground. We cannot adopt a negative attitude, neither can we consider it a victory," said the leader of Lebanon's largest Christian community, which is vocal in its wish to be rid of Syria's military presence.
"We must wait for the end (of the redeployment) to know the extent of this step," he said.
However, Sfeir did not rule out a return of Syrian troops to evacuated positions in case of "regional circumstances," most likely involving Israel.
Israel has launched incursions into Lebanon since October 2000 in response to attacks on Israeli troops by the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, which is allegedly supported by Syria.
Despite his regional concerns, Sfeir also used a threat posed by the Syrian presence to Lebanese independence as a pretext to voice demands of a troops withdrawal from Lebanon.
Lebanese Chrisitians privately voice concerns that the presence of troops of a Muslim country could strengthen Lebanese Muslims hand in the country. Both groups were part of Lebanon's long-running civil war.
"The military presence facilitates Syria's interference in Lebanese affairs and from this point of view, the withdrawal is not sufficient," he said.
Sfeir had applauded the redeployment on Thursday, calling it satisfactory.
The Syrian army entered areas in Beirut in 1990 to oust the then anti-Syrian prime minister, Michel Aoun.
On Saturday, the former premier, who now lives in exile in France, was quoted by the daily An-Nahar as saying that "the very limited withdrawal is aimed at quelling the wrath of a majority of Lebanese demanding a Syrian pull-out".
Syria, which is the effective power broker in Lebanon, is believed to have 25,000 to 27,000 troops in the country, although not in the southern region formerly occupied by Israel.
There has been no statement so far as to how many of those troops have been redeployed.
Officials said the move was in line with the 1989 Taef accords which ended the civil war.
The agreement stipulated that Syrian troops based in the country since the mid-1970s be pulled back to the Bekaa valley within two years after the introduction of Lebanon's new constitution, which occurred in 1990.
Opponents of the Syrian presence, including Sfeir, have stepped up calls over the past year for the troops to be redeployed, following the end of Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in May 2000.
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