BOUEIREJ, Lebanon - A Syrian military convoy of nine trucks and two jeeps was headed towards the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon Monday amid expectations of a redeployment, witnesses said.
The convoy was seen close to the village of Boueirej on the main Beirut-Damascus highway that links the capital to the the Bekaa, where Syria has pledged to pull back all its troops in Lebanon under international pressure for a full pullout.
It was not immediately clear whether the trucks were transporting equipment or soldiers as they were covered.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad announced after a summit in Damascus that a much-awaited Syrian redeployment to the Bekaa would take place by the end of the month.
The pullback falls short of a demand by the UN Security Council last September for a rapid withdrawal of all foreign trooops.
An estimated 14,000 Syrian troops remain in Lebanon, along with an unknown number of security agents.
Earlier Monday, Syrian forces were seen preparing to leave their positions on a mountain above Beirut.
The soldiers, posted at Dahr al-Wahsh, about 12 kilometres (seven miles) east of the capital, were seen emptying buildings and loading mattresses and furniture on to trucks.
In a series of redeployments since June 2001, Syria has cut its troop strength in Lebanon from 40,000 to the current 14,000, nearly 10,000 of which are already in the Bekaa.
03/07/2005 14:50 GMT