All Troops to Be Out of Lebanon Soon, Syria Says

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BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Syria has withdrawn nearly a third of its 14,000 troops from Lebanon, a senior Lebanese army officer said Sunday, while a Syrian Cabinet minister said all the troops would be gone before Lebanese parliamentary elections slated to begin next month.

Since Tuesday some 4,000 Syrian soldiers have crossed into Syria, the Lebanese official said on condition of anonymity, and the 10,000 troops still in the country have mainly pulled back to the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, near the Syrian border. However, 1,000 intelligence officers remain in the country, mainly the north around Tripoli and Akkar and on the southern edge of Beirut.

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All Troops to Be Out of Lebanon Soon, Syria Says

President Bush has demanded that all Syrian troops be gone by the elections. The Cabinet minister, Bouthaina Shaaban, told CNN: "The elections will take place, and I think the troops will move out of Lebanon probably before then."

In a flurry...

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