| Syrian intelligence
services start pulling out of Beirut BEIRUT
- Syrian military intelligence units began pulling our of positions in Beirut Tuesday in
what appeared to be a bid by Damascus to demonstrate a clear commitment to quitting
Lebanon militarily once and for all.
The evacuation came a day after a huge opposition rally here intensified public pressure
for a Syrian pullout and followed a weekend commitment to a UN envoy by Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad to call home all his troops and intelligence operatives.
Members of the intelligence service loaded a truck with furniture and personal effects
from a building along the Mediterranean coast, a photographer reported.
Military intelligence officers in civilian clothing supervised the evacuation of three
Syrian intelligence offices in the area, with streets closed off by Lebanese gendarmes.
Another intelligence facility, located on Hamra Street in the commercial district, was
also being abandoned, with cartons loaded aboard a small truck in an operation watched by
police.
Assad on Saturday gave a commitment to United Nations special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen to
comply with Security Council Resolution 1559, which was approved last September and calls
for the withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence units.
Larsen said he would this week present UN Secretary General Kofi Annan with a timetable
for a full Syrian departure from Lebanon, where its troops have been stationed since 1976.
Saturday's pledge was the first time that Assad had mentioned the departure of Syrian
intelligence officers, who according to Western experts number between three and four
thousand, operating throughout Lebanon.
The full dismantling of the intelligence network will be of great political and symbolic
significance here.
Lebanese opposition MP Marwan Hamade, addressing Monday's rally, charged that Lebanese and
Syrian intelligence agents were hiding the truth behind the February 14 assassination of
former prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
Harari's killing, widely blamed here on Syria despite denials by Damascus, provoked public
outrage and re-kindled a movement to secure the complete and timely withdrawal of Syrian
forces. |
