BEIRUT, 29 March 2005 — Two thousand more Syrian troops have left Lebanon, the Lebanese military said yesterday, as a Lebanese Foreign Ministry official flew to New York to attend talks on the probable formation of a UN commission to investigate the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The government responded to criticism of its inquiry into the assassination by saying it had found numerous parts of a white truck whose suspicious behavior before the blast was captured on video tape and screened on satellite TV.
The departure of an extra 2,000 Syrians brings the Syrian military presence down to 8,000 troops, the lowest it has been since Syrian forces entered Lebanon in the second year of the 1975-90 civil war.
More Syrian forces are expected to leave this week. Syrian soldiers were seen dismantling eight positions near the eastern city of Baalbek yesterday. In Chaat, 25 km north of Baalbek, this reporter saw Syrian soldiers loading goods on to 10 trucks, each of which had an anti-aircraft gun in tow.
A Lebanese military official said the 2,000 Syrian soldiers had left the eastern Bekaa Valley and returned home during the past few days. The Lebanese-Syrian Military Commission will meet next week to agree on the second phase of Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon, the official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. The second phase is expected to see the complete removal of Syrian forces in Lebanon.
The Foreign Ministry’s acting secretary-general, Butros Asaker, left Beirut early yesterday for New York, where he will meet UN officials and attend a Security Council meeting that is expected to set up a UN commission of inquiry into the assassination of Hariri, who was killed with 17 others in a massive bombing on Feb. 14.
