Syrian Troops Move to Enforce Truce in Tripoli

Syrian troops moved into the embattled northern port of Tripoli on Sunday to enforce a cease-fire that the Syrians hope will lead to the imminent release of three Soviet hostages held in Lebanon by fundamentalist Muslim kidnapers.

In Beirut, however, a caller to two Western news agencies claiming to speak for extremists holding the Soviets said that they will not be freed until the superpowers take steps to “end the Lebanese crisis.” A fourth Soviet Embassy hostage was found slain last week.

The fate of William Buckley, the long-abducted U.S. Embassy political officer in Beirut, remained unknown two days after an anonymous caller claiming to represent the Iranian-influenced Islamic Jihad said he would be executed.

Muslim militiamen in Tripoli, after battling for control of Lebanon’s second-largest city for three weeks, left their posts as scores of Syrian troops led by tanks moved into the devastated city.

“It’s very good,” said Brig. Ghazi Kanaan, chief of Syrian army intelligence. “Our soldiers went in all over the city, and more will come once the weapons are collected. In my view, this is the final, final peace.”

The group claiming to hold the Soviets, the Islamic Liberation Organization, has demanded that Moscow pressure its Syrian ally to end an assault on Tripoli’s Sunni Muslim Tawhid militia by a pro-Syrian militia. However, it said that halting the Tripoli attacks “does not necessarily mean the end of the conspiracy” against Tawhid. “Thus, we will not free the (Soviet) hostages,” a caller said.