Syria Reduces Troop Presence to 8,000
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From Times Wire Reports
Syria has cut back its troops in Lebanon to 8,000, its lowest level in three decades, as 2,000 soldiers returned home in recent days, the Lebanese military said.
The move puts Damascus on track to have all its forces out of Lebanon before Lebanese parliamentary elections in May, fulfilling a key U.S. and U.N. demand.
Until mid-February, when former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated and calls grew for Syria to pull out, Damascus had about 14,000 soldiers in Lebanon. At their peak in the 1980s and ‘90s, they numbered about 40,000.
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