Syrian intelligence agents start Beirut pullout

Syrian intelligence agents began evacuating their headquarters in Beirut yesterday, partially meeting a key US and Lebanese opposition demand for an end to three decades of Syria's tutelage over its neighbour.

Witnesses said the Syrians were loading equipment from the headquarters in the seafront Ramlet al-Baida district onto trucks and removing pictures of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his late father Hafez from around the building.

Syria's often feared intelligence presence has been a key element in its political and military influence on Lebanon since its troops first intervened early in the 1975-90 civil war. A Lebanese security source said he expected all Syrian intelligence agents in Beirut, the north and the Mount Lebanon area overlooking the capital, to have moved to eastern Lebanon by today. He put their numbers at 150 to 200.

For now Syrian intelligence retains its Lebanon headquarters in the Bekaa Valley town of Anjar, but the closure of the Beirut office indicated that Syrian forces have almost completed the first phase of a withdrawal from Lebanon announced 10 days ago.