Syrian soldiers leave Lebanon

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MASNAA, Lebanon -- Syria ended its nearly 30-year occupation of Lebanon yesterday, pulling its last 250 soldiers across the border after an upbeat ceremony that glossed over the tensions between the two neighbors.

The rear guard of a Syrian contingent that had numbered 14,000 soldiers just two months ago chanted and waved V-for-victory signs as it rode buses and jeeps across the border in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

"We sacrifice our blood and souls for you, Bashar," went the chant in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose likeness was posted all over the vehicles.

Shortly afterward, officials in Damascus formally notified the United Nations that they had complied with a resolution calling for Syrian withdrawal of all troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon.

"The Syrian Arab forces stationed in Lebanon, at the request of Lebanon and under an Arab mandate, have fully withdrawn all their military, security apparatus and assets," Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa said in a letter to the world body.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli called the Syrian pullout "a historic day for Lebanon and its people," but cautioned that the United States was still waiting for final verification that all Syrian military and intelligence assets had been withdrawn from the country.

He said it was premature to speculate on whether the move would improve rocky U.S.-Syrian relations and said no decision had been made on the return to Damascus of U.S. Ambassador Margaret Scobey, who was recalled to Washington for consultations in mid-February to express U.S. unhappiness with Syria.

Syria first sent troops to Lebanon in 1976 to quell a civil war and the troops remained after the war ended in 1990.

It retained firm military and political control until February, when a bombing killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The killing sparked a series of popular protests against Syria.