4,000 Syrian Troops Are Deployed Near Beirut

About 4,000 Syrian troops were deploying near Beirut on Saturday, indicating that Syria was moving in to quell weeklong factional fighting in Muslim West Beirut.

Lebanese Muslim government leaders and chieftains of the feuding militias had requested the intervention during a meeting Friday with Syrian officials.

President Amin Gemayel, a Maronite Catholic, on Saturday denounced any such move, saying it would be unconstitutional. However, Gemayel wields no influence in Lebanon’s Muslim-held areas.

At least 200 people have been killed and 400 injured since the battle for control of West Beirut began Feb. 15, pitting the Shia Muslim Amal militia against an alliance of Druze militias and Lebanese Communists.

Sources who refused to be identified further said the Syrian intervention force consists of an armored brigade with 100 Soviet-made T-62 tanks and 200 armored personnel carriers, backed by an elite Special Forces battalion and a mechanized infantry battalion.

The estimated 4,000 Syrian troops have camped for three days in the central mountain resort of Sofar, about 15 miles east of Beirut, said a Lebanese army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said the Syrian force would move toward West Beirut “once its deployment plan is finalized.”

“Today, they dismantled their tents. That was the only indication they might move soon,” he said Saturday. It would take the Syrians at least four hours to reach West Beirut from Sofar.

State-run Beirut Radio and the Muslim-controlled Voice of the Nation said a Syrian scouting patrol arrived in the southern Beirut suburb of Khalde shortly after nightfall. Beirut police said they could not confirm the report.

Misleading Report

A report by a Lebanese source in Damascus earlier Saturday that the Syrian troops “are already rolling” was misinterpreted to mean they had already reached West Beirut.

There was no confirmation that the force had left its staging area, and it had not arrived in Beirut by nightfall.

An Amal militia source said the Syrians had no plans to deploy in West Beirut this weekend.

“They will stay at a (Lebanese) army barracks. Meanwhile, each militia or political party will withdraw its militiamen from the streets by Monday,” the source said.

Local reporters said the Syrians have deployed hundreds of Soviet-made halftracks on both sides of a 28-mile-long highway connecting the town of Masnaa on the Syrian border with the mountain range in central Lebanon.

“The vehicles are guarding the supply route for the Syrian intervention force,” said a Syrian army officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

One reporter counted at least 75 Syrian trucks loaded with military hardware and ammunition driving to Sofar from Chtoura, 10 miles to the east. Earlier, at Mdeirej in Syrian-controlled east Lebanon, hundreds of men in tanks, troop carriers and trucks lined the Beirut-Damascus highway ready to go.

“We drove all night from Tripoli (north Lebanon),” one Syrian soldier said as he packed a sleeping bag into a truck. “We are very tired, but we are looking forward to deploying in Beirut to bring peace and order to our Lebanese brothers.”

In West Beirut, the Lebanese army set up buffer zones to disengage warring factions. The Lebanese were aided by about 500 Syrian troops who have been in the capital since last year.

The accord signed in Damascus on Friday by five Lebanese Muslim leaders calls for dissolving and disarming militias and forming a security force to guard government offices, embassies, the port, the airport and the highways linking West Beirut with eastern and southern Lebanon.

“We have asked (Syrian President Hafez) Assad to send Syrian troops to help Lebanese legal forces restore law and order in West Beirut and collect all illegal weapons,” Premier Rashid Karami said after another meeting with Syrian officials Saturday.

“Whoever refuses this, or philosophizes about the need for Syrian intervention, does not want salvation and peace of mind for the displaced Beiruti resident burdened with unendurable sufferings,” he said in a radio broadcast.

War-weary Beirut residents viewed Syria’s move with mixed feelings, recalling the failure of a Syrian-led Arab Deterrent Force to disband militias and restore state authority after intervening in 1976 to halt Lebanon’s civil war.

“We are back to 1976,” said a housewife named Samia. “We have seen so many deployments and cease-fires before and no longer have faith in all these security plans.”