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U.N. team inspects Syrian bases in Lebanon
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-04 08:35
A U.N. team inspected three former Syrian troops bases and an intelligence
center Tuesday, trying to verify that Syria has withdrawn all its troops and
agents from Lebanon.
The team headed by Brig. Gen. Elhadji Mouhamadou Kandji of Senegal,
accompanied by Lebanese military policemen, arrived unannounced armed with maps
and video cameras, witnesses said.
One of a nine-member U.N. team, left, charged
with verifying Syria's troop withdrawal from Lebanon, checks a map with a
Lebanese intelligence officer as they inspect intelligence offices and
troop bases vacated by Syrian forces in Baalbek, Lebanon, Tuesday May 3,
2005. A verification team sent by the U.N. Security Council began its
mission on the ground Tuesday, inspecting military bases vacated by Syrian
forces in the eastern Bekaa Valley city of Baalbek.
[AP] | The Security Council sent the team to verify the complete withdrawal
announced by Syria last week, which ended Damascus' 29-year domination of
Lebanon. In February, Syria had some 14,000 troops in Lebanon but agreed to pull
them out in the face of mounting international pressure and mass protests in
Beirut by the anti-Syrian opposition.
However, residents of the Bekaa town of Deir el-Ashaer on the Lebanese-Syrian
mountain border, complained last week that Syrian troops continue to maintain a
military base in the area.
Deir al-Ashaer is on the tip of a triangle of rugged terrain jutting into
Syria territory, 40 miles, southeast of Beirut. The base is a few hundred yards
from the ill-defined border inside Lebanon.
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