Many members of the anti-Syrian opposition poured into Beirut on Monday for a planned mass protest to demand a full Syrian withdrawal, the resignation of Lebanese security chiefs and the truth behind the killing of the country's former prime minister.
Syrian military intelligence, meanwhile, vacated two more offices in northern Lebanon, The AP reported.
The planned anti-Syrian protest at the Martyrs Square comes exactly four weeks after Prime Minister Rafic Hariri's assassination. Independent estimates placed the number of the opposition demonstration at well over 1.3 million, half an hour before the sit-in was scheduled to begin at mid-afternoon.
Most Syrian intelligence offices remained staffed in northern and central Lebanon, though Syrian troops have redeployed closer to the Syrian border. About 4,000 of the 14,000 troops in Lebanon have left altogether.
Syrian intelligence agents closed two offices early Monday - one in the town of Amyoun in the Koura region of northern Lebanon, according to local residents, and another in Deir Ammar, locals said.
Syrian intelligence vacated offices in the towns of Aley and Bhamdoun in the central mountains east of Beirut last week and headed to the Syrian-controlled areas of eastern Lebanon.
