LEBANESE ARMY MOVES INTO CHRISTIAN ENCLAVE

Tank-led Lebanese troops began deploying in heavy rain into a Christian militia stronghold Wednesday, in one of the biggest moves toward ending 16 years of civil war. Witnesses said a large convoy of Lebanese troops armed with tanks, automatic guns, rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns, fanned out in an enclave held by the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) militia north and northeast of Beirut.

The army takeover brings at least a quarter of Lebanon under government control and ends 16 years of militia rule, widely blamed for the civil war that began in April 1975.