Lebanese troops, accompanied by UN peacekeepers, took up positions on the border with Israel today for the first time in decades.
A reporter saw soldiers in two armoured troop carriers and four trucks deploy in the frontier village of Majidiyeh in the eastern sector of south Lebanon, near the Lebanese side of the divided town of Ghajar.
The troops were accompanied by UN peacekeepers in one UN vehicle.
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a statement that Lebanese army units started deploying in the area a day after Israeli forces pulled out.
It was the first time the Lebanese army had taken up positions in that sector of south Lebanon since it made way for Palestinian guerrillas to deploy there in the late 1960s.
The Israeli army said earlier today that it had handed over more than two thirds of the territory it captured in south Lebanon to UN troops and Lebanese forces since a truce with Hizbullah took effect.
Israeli forces occupied pockets of territory in the south during 34 days of fighting that was halted by a UN truce on August 14.
But Israel has refused to withdraw completely from south Lebanon before the deployment of a beefed-up UNIFIL force to ensure Hizbullah cannot get close to its border again.