06:23 Lebanese troops deployed - Reuters.com
Reuters.com reports Lebanese troops deployed in south Lebanon on Thursday, linking up with U.N. peacekeepers to take control of Hizbollah strongholds as Israeli forces withdraw after their 34-day war with the guerrillas. More than 100 trucks, troop carriers and jeeps streamed across a makeshift bridge on the Litani to the mainly Christian town of Marjayoun, about 5 miles from the Israeli border. Some members of UNIFIL, the 2,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force already in Lebanon, watched them cross. Other units crossed the river at Qasmiyeh to deploy in the area around the port city of Tyre, the sources said. There was no sign of Hizbollah guerrillas as the Lebanese troops moved south. Even unarmed members of the group seen on previous days riding around on mopeds and giving instructions to journalists and residents in the south had disappeared. Hizbollah has promised to cooperate with Lebanese and U.N. troops. But the Shi'ite Muslim group has made clear it will not disarm or leave the south. Nor has it pledged to decommission the rockets it rained on northern Israel during the conflict. Beirut intl airport, bombed by Israel early in the war, will reopen on Thursday for commercial flights for the first time in five weeks, airport sources said.
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