Dozens of Syrian trucks loaded with soldiers and military equipment were seen moving early yesterday toward the Syrian border and the Bekaa valley, the day after hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in Beirut in a thundering show of strength by the Syrian-backed Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.
Lebanese army sources said that a convoy of three buses loaded with Syrian soldiers crossed the Syrian-Lebanese border overnight.
Meanwhile, Syrian posts in Hammana and Falgouha mountains overlooking Beirut were seen partially deserted.
A convoy of around seven trucks was seen moving from the area of Hammana and stopping near the Lebanese-Syrian border.
"So far around four posts were evacuated by the Syrian troops in Falougha and Boureij, they all headed towards the Bekaa valley," said the source in eastern Lebanon.
The redeployment of Syrian troops started on Tuesday afternoon.
Syrian President Hafez al Assad announced last week that troops will redeploy from areas overlooking Beirut toward the Bekaa Valley and then the Syrian border.
Lebanese officials said the pullback would be completed by March 23. Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares said he believes the next phase, the full withdrawal from Lebanon, will be "speedy" -- but he did not give a date.
On Tuesday, thousands of people crowded a central Beirut square, singing, waving Lebanese flags and chanting anti-US slogans in support of Hezbollah. The crowds vastly outnumbered anti-Syrian rallies of the past weeks.
The rally -- many times larger than a demonstration the day before calling on Syrian troops to leave -- was a signal from Hezbollah that the anti-Israeli Shiite Muslim group remains a powerful force in Lebanon even if Syria leaves. Hezbollah, which is funded by Iran and backed by Syria, is under pressure from the UN to disarm with a Syrian pullout.
Damascus also sought to send a message, that even if its forces are out, its influence will not be ended in the country it has dominated for more than a decade.
The hundreds of thousands who streamed into Beirut's Riad Solh square on Tuesday waved a sea of red-and-white Lebanese flags, and two huge banners in the square read, in English: "Thank you Syria" and "No to foreign interference." That was a reference to US and UN pressure on Syria -- but not to the Syrian military, which the protesters made clear they were happy to have stay.
"We're here for the independence of Lebanon but not for Syria to leave," said 16-year-old Esraa Awarki, who traveled to Beirut by bus with a number of schoolmates from Sharkiya, in southern Lebanon. "Syria was helping to protect us."
The sprawling crowds burst into the national anthem, some touted posters with pictures of the Lebanese and Syrian presidents. Throughout the afternoon, loudspeakers blared songs of resistance and officials gave nationalist speeches.
"We are manifesting here against foreign intervention in our internal affairs, and we're supporting Hezbollah," said Maha Choukair, a 21-year-old Lebanese University student. "Here we are saying thank you to Syria, not asking them to leave."
Many of the signs in Riad Solh square on Tuesday denounced UN Security Council resolution 1559, which calls for Syrian troops to leave Lebanon and demands the disarming of militias, referring to Hezbollah.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS