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Hizbullah Fighters Retreat North after Truce
(Wall Street Journal) Jared Malsin - Exhausted Hizbullah fighters filed past a throng of civilians through Nabatieh, Lebanon, on Thursday, withdrawing northward a day after the ceasefire. As they pulled back, ordinary residents flowed south, past mountains of rubble, returning to homes they had fled. The Hizbullah men said the fighting had been hard since Israeli ground troops pushed into Lebanon in September. One militant said his unit had been on the front for weeks without reinforcements and at times cut off from contact with commanders after Israeli attacks hobbled internal communications. A Hizbullah commander said the group planned to withdraw its heavy weapons and fighters from the south, with the exception of those who live in the south, who would remain with light arms. "Those who are not from the villages themselves will have to pull back," he said. Just outside of Nabatieh, a flatbed truck carrying a rocket launcher could be seen driving north, as Lebanese army armored personnel carriers and trucks carrying bulldozers rumbled south.