Toll Put at 350 Dead in Ousting Lebanon General

Syrian troops Thursday left the government buildings they occupied after crushing rebel Christian Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun, and police said the final toll from last week’s air and ground assault by Syrian and Lebanese troops on Aoun’s forces stood at 350 dead and 1,200 wounded.

However, doctors at East Beirut hospitals and military officials said the death toll was more than twice that high, with at least 750 killed, the New York Times reported.

The Beirut police spokesman said the dead included about 100 Syrian soldiers, whose bodies were later flown or driven to Damascus.

Commenting on reports that 80 of Aoun’s soldiers were killed after surrendering, he said: “By the time we examined the bodies at the morgue at the Baabda government hospital, we found no solid evidence that the soldiers were liquidated.”

However, France has asked the United Nations to investigate allegations of executions and atrocities by Lebanese and Syrian troops against Aoun sympathizers, the French Foreign Ministry said today.

Aoun, meanwhile, spent his sixth day at the French Embassy. France has granted Aoun asylum, but Lebanon said it will bar him from leaving. Most of Aoun’s 15,000 troops have declared allegiance to the army.