Lebanon security chief resigns as last Syrians leave

BEIRUT - Lebanon's most powerful pro-Syrian security chief resigned Monday, hours before the last Syrian forces were due to leave their tiny neighbor and end Damascus' 29-year domination.

"Security chiefs are usually appointed with politics and change when it changes," Jamil al-Sayyed, head of the General Security, said in his resignation letter.

Sayyed said last week he was ready to step aside during a UN-ordered international investigation into the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, which sparked furious protests against the Syrians many blamed for the killing.

Syria bowed to international and Lebanese pressure last month and began pulling its 14,000 troops and many more spies from Lebanon. Only a few hundred remain in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where the Lebanese Army prepared Monday to take over the Syrian intelligence headquarters in the town of Anjar.

Protests by Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition toppled the pro-Syrian government in the wake of Hariri's death. Their further demands for security chiefs to resign and for an international probe into Hariri's killing are now being realized.

The chief of police, Ali Hajj, last week put himself at the disposal of the interior minister, effectively stepping down.

Closely allied to Damascus, Sayyed has been widely considered Lebanon's most powerful security figure since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, when he played a crucial role in rebuilding the security organs that helped restore stability.

But many Lebanese politicians complain he used his position to impose Syria's influence over political life in Lebanon.

Syria withdrew hundreds of troops Sunday, burning documents, demolishing walls and filling bunkers as it abandoned its last military positions in the Bekaa, witnesses said.

At least 150 vehicles carrying troops, tanks and artillery crossed the border during the afternoon, they said.

Monday the Lebanese Army took over the last Syrian intelligence checkpoints, witnesses said. Lebanese forces were expected to be in control of its Anjar headquarters by the end of the day, security sources said.

"There are a couple of hundred left," one security source said. "A few will leave today. Tomorrow they will all be gone."

Rustum Ghazaleh, Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon, and a token Syrian force will be the last to leave after a farewell ceremony in the Bekaa Tuesday, security sources said, hours before the United Nations issues a report on whether Syria is complying with a Security Council demand that it withdraw.

The military road that links the two countries will be closed after the farewell ceremony ends and the Lebanese Army will take over the Syrian intelligence headquarters, they said.

Syria is pulling out of Lebanon in line with the UN resolution passed in September. It had vowed to go by April 30 but will be out about four days early.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan overrode US objections to delay the report on Syria's progress for a week until Tuesday, when a UN verification team will arrive in Damascus.

The team hopes to obtain from Syrian officials maps of Syria's abandoned positions and final reports on the status of its military and intelligence presence in Lebanon, a UN official said. The team will then travel to Lebanon, where it is expected to verify the Syrian withdrawal.

Syria sent its forces into Lebanon early in 1976 and has dominated the country since the end of the civil war.

By this year it had already greatly reduced its troop levels in Lebanon from about 40,000 some five years ago, but speeded its exit after Hariri's death threw Lebanon into its worst political crisis since the war, leaving it without a government for seven weeks.

Parliament will debate the policy statement of a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Najib Mikati Tuesday before holding a vote of confidence Wednesday that is expected to be passed.

The government would then begin preparations to hold general elections, due before the end of May.

- REUTERS