The last Syrian forces packed to leave Lebanon today, effectively ending its 29-year military and intelligence domination of its tiny neighbour.
Syria withdrew hundreds of soldiers from Lebanon yesterday, burning documents, knocking down walls and filling in bunkers as it abandoned the last of its military positions in the eastern Bekaa Valley, witnesses said.
At least 150 vehicles carrying troops, tanks and artillery crossed the border during the afternoon, they said.
By this morning, only a handful of Syrian intelligence checkpoints and small posts remained, as well as the main Syrian intelligence headquarters in the town of Anjar.
Rustum Ghazaleh, Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon, and a token Syrian force would be the last to leave after a farewell ceremony in the Bekaa on 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.
Syria is pulling out of Lebanon in line with the UN resolution passed in September.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan overrode US objections to delay the report on Syria's progress for a week until tomorrow, when a UN verification team will arrive in Damascus.
Syria, whose forces entered Lebanon early in the 1975-1990 civil war, has dominated the country since the war ended. It had some 14,000 troops stationed in Lebanon before it began pulling them out on March 8th in the face of international pressure and Lebanese protest after the February 14th assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Opposition protests also toppled Lebanon's pro-Syrian government in the wake of Mr Hariri's death.