SYRIAN-LED FORCE QUITS WEST BEIRUT
More than 1,300 troops of the Palestine Liberation Army left west Beirut today and traveled the dusty road to Damascus in the first overland withdrawal. Armed Israeli soldiers dropped out of sight as the trucks passed the last Israeli checkpoint here. But Israeli officers dressed as tourists stood by the road and watched the Palestinians roll into Syrian-held territory. An additional 760 guerrillas of the Palestine Liberation Organization left today by sea for Tartus, Syria, making a total of more than 6,400 guerrillas and soldiers who have left west Beirut in the first week of the pullout. That is about half the troops estimated by the Israeli Army to have been trapped in west Beirut a week after the Israelis invaded Lebanon on June 6.
