Withdrawal Begins Under Plan for Militia-Free Beirut : Lebanon: The pullout of nine armed groups is a major step in extending government control and ending the long civil war.

Militiamen began pulling out of Beirut on Saturday on the first day of a phased plan to extend the government’s authority over the Lebanese capital after 15 years of civil war.

Witnesses said scores of Shiite Muslim Amal gunmen were seen leaving for southern Lebanon with artillery, mortars and heavy machine guns.

“We will complete our withdrawal from all of Beirut today (Saturday).. . . Not a single bullet will remain in the city. We have no role here anymore; it is for the army to take over,” said Imad Mekdad, a senior member of the pro-Syrian group.

The government of President Elias Hrawi is trying to take control of the entire capital as part of a plan to end 15 years of civil war that has killed more than 150,000 Christians and Muslims.

The plan, to be completed by Nov. 19, is intended as a major step toward ending the civil war under an Arab League peace pact approved by Parliament last year.

All of Lebanon’s nine major militias say they support the plan for a militia-free Beirut and say they are preparing to leave.

The Syrians, the main power brokers in Lebanon, have 40,000 troops in the country and have pledged Hrawi all the backing he needs to implement the peace plan.

The defeat Oct. 13 of rebel Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun in a Syrian-led attack paved the way for Hrawi to extend his control over Beirut.

A police spokesman said the other Shiite militia, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, or Party of God, during the night had pulled out “several militiamen” from its south Beirut strongholds, where most of the Westerners missing in Lebanon were believed held.

The conservative newspaper Ad Diyar, in an unattributed report, said kidnapers of Western hostages “moved the captives out of south Beirut to unknown hide-outs two weeks ago.”

The police spokesman said the rightist Christian Lebanese Forces militia of Samir Geagea also was gathering its fighters in East Beirut for the pullout from Beirut.

The Lebanese Forces militiamen will go to the Christian hinterland of Kesrouan province north of the capital, the spokesman said.

Some residents watching Amal’s withdrawal said they doubt that the pullout will end militia rule in the capital forever.

“It is not the first time the government has planned to restore its authority in Beirut. In the past, the militias used to leave the city in the morning and come back at night,” said Ali Khateeb, a 50-year-old service station owner.

Others said business had improved after the destruction of the Green Line fortifications that had divided Beirut into Christian East and Muslim West.

“What is happening is a great thing. The streets are open again, business is better, and the militias and their imposed taxes are gone,” said Hassan Jaafar, 24.

Defense Minister Albert Mansour said that the army would deploy in all areas of “Greater Beirut” after the militias complete their withdrawal within the timetable set by the government.

Hrawi is trying to rebuild the Lebanese army, for years fractured along sectarian lines. Military sources said he has an effective combat force of only about 9,000 Muslim troops under his army commander, Gen. Emile Lahoud.