The World - News from Feb. 24, 1989

Christian militias in Lebanon abandoned a strategically and financially important Beirut port they had controlled for nearly three years, sources said. “We’ve closed all our financial operations at the port and withdrew our fighters. The port now is in the hands of the Beirut Port Authority,” said a source at the command of the Lebanese Forces Christian militia. Customs officials and other government employees have not been reporting for duty at the port since the militia took control in mid-1986. The source said the militia will maintain a “symbolic force near the port.”