Israeli Troops Begin Pullout from Southern Lebanon; Hezbollah Guerrillas Occupy Security Vacuum
LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Early today, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak gave the word for troops to begin to pull out from Israeli- occupied territory in Southern Lebanon. The move came as a surprise and set things in motion on both sides of Israel's northern border. We have two live reports this morning, beginning with CNN's Jerrold Kessel, who is in Metulla, Israel. Jerrold, what is the latest there?</s>JERROLD KESSEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Linda. The final chapter of this long 22-year ordeal, what's called "Israel's ordeal" in Lebanon, about to come to a close here. For some, it's more than an ordeal in south Lebanon. The Israelis even call it a tragedy. But one way or another it is winding down. And here I'm standing on the border fence between Israel, Northern Israel, and South Lebanon. A closed gate leading into South Lebanon, but it was at this very spot several hours ago, during the night, that many columns of Israeli troops came out, brought out in armored personnel carriers and other armored vehicles, as the troops came out of positions that they had held inside that South Lebanon area, which Israelis used to call their security zone; much exaltation there, the troops cheering. And one of the things many of the young conscript did on crossing through the border fence was to pick up their mobile cellular phones and to telephone home to tell their families and their parents that they were back safe in Northern Israel. Here on the northern border now of Israel are rather quiet, although there are occasional thuds of artillery and mortars; this withdrawal is still continuing. And here at this point there are several Israeli mer-kavat (ph) tanks stationed here at the ready, obviously, prepared to secure the next phases of this withdrawal when they do happen. The concern in Israel of what's happening more on the other side of the border, both the fact that the Hezbollah guerrillas have come up into the areas that have been vacated along -- right up towards the border fence, and also, the fact of what is happening to the SLA, that's the militia force which has been allied to Israel, and many members of that force have been seeking asylum, taking up the Israeli promise that they will be granted asylum in Israel, heading to the border fence and crossing into Israel with their families, as they did yesterday and again today. But for now, the -- as this withdrawal continue, Prime Minister Barak says it will take several days more, or a few days more, he said, and the word he used was "to end this tragedy in Lebanon." And then Israel will be re-deployed along this border here. The Israeli army says there are still many risks attendant to the withdrawal now in process, but for many Israelis the real concern is the risk that they believe Israel might face once the withdrawal is complete -- Linda.</s>STOUFFER: Jerrold Kessel, live in Israel, thank you very much. And now, we want to get the view from the other side. CNN's Brent Sadler joins us by phone from Southern Lebanon. Brent, what can you tell us about what's going on right there?</s>BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Linda. It's anything but quiet in this sector of the former occupied zone I'm now standing in. I'm watching an Israeli helicopter gun-ship strafe an area, a hilltop position, just in-land from the southern port city of Kahale, which it appears also to be artillery fire going on as well. United Nations observers who are watching this firefight here say that they believe an Israeli outpost may still be manned and that this fire we're seeing may be an attempt by the Israeli military to secure a release under covering fire, so that they can evacuate that compound. Elsewhere, over the past few hours, we've seen dramatic changes on the ground here in many sectors of the former occupied zone with thousands of Lebanese civilians mingled in with Hezbollah resistance fighters reclaiming their land. Hezbollah claiming this is the beginning of what they say is their victory over the 22-year Israeli occupation of the tip of South Lebanon. They began coming into these areas with light weapons, Hezbollah and an Amal militia carrying machine guns. There was a clump of artillery fire you may have heard there and not far away from the Hezbollah people, carrying light weapons. But in the past hour, I've seen them taking over abandoned SLA, that's Israel's militia allies, abandoned Soviet-era tanks that have been discarded to the side of the road. Heavy mortars and machine guns and armored personnel carriers, driving this heavy armor, this heavy artillery and various other pieces of high-caliber weaponry along the streets in these so-called "liberated" areas. This, of course, not the plan that Israel had in mind. Expecting that there might be some coordinated effort to change the circumstances here. But that obviously not the case, and they're very volatile and dangerous security vacuum is now being created here in parts of South Lebanon. Back to you, Linda.</s>STOUFFER: Brent Sadler, the latest from Southern Lebanon, thank you very much.