RASHAYA, Lebanon, Aug 28, 2006 (AFP) - Hezbollah has shut down 14 frontline positions facing the disputed Shebaa Farms border area in southern Lebanon in a region where UN forces are due to monitor a truce with Israel, security sources said Monday.

The Lebanese Shiite militia closed all their positions in the Arqub mountain area, using bulldozers to level checkpoints and shut the entrances of tunnels and caves, they said.

Using pickup trucks and other vehicles, the guerrillas have moved out missiles, artillery and other weapons, as well as military equipment, furniture and power generators over the last 10 days, they said.

Witnesses told AFP that the guerrillas drove empty vehicles to frontline positions, loaded them with the weapons and equipment before heading northward.

Hezbollah officials were unreachable for comment.

The Lebanese army has been deploying in the area, in the first such move into the border region of southern Lebanon in about four decades.

The deployment comes after a month-long Israeli offensive launched after Hezbollah captured two soldiers on the border on July 12.

Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah ceased after UN Security Council Resolution 1701 imposed a ceasefire on August 14.

The resolution also called for an Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon, a Lebanese army deployment in the area in tandem with a beefed-up UN force of 15,000 troops, and the disarming of all armed groups in the country.

Hezbollah has vowed to fight to free the Shebaa Farms area from Israeli occupation.

Israel captured the small, mountainous territory between Lebanon, Syria and Israel in the June 1967 Middle East war, but it is now claimed by Beirut with the backing of Damascus.

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