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111101 entriesfrom the booksonly where the books disagree
chronologiesallThe road to war 1968–1974The Lebanese war 1975–1990After the war 1991–2005July 2006, as the books tell it 2006Since 2005 2005–2025
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32 entries on 31 dates · the books disagree on 32

April 1975

Tuesday, 15 April 1975

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

A cease-fire was reached
After more than three days of anguish, with 120 deaths and many injuries, two suspects were handed over to the Justice. Beirut and its surroundings have been the theater of violent clashes between the Phalange Party and Palestinian militias. Also, Zghortiotes and Tripolitans fought in Tripoli. A cease-fire was declared at night and all parties reached an agreement, the execution of which was entrusted to the Internal Security Forces.
What the books addAfter several days of fighting (Hanf; four, says Traboulsi), Pierre Gemayel gave up to the police two militiamen implicated in the Ain al-Rummaneh shooting. Early Syrian mediation failed to stop this round, which de Clerck and Malsagne end with a cease-fire on 16 May 1975; no book confirms a truce on 15 April.

Other date in the books: Friday, 16 May 1975

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April 1976

Friday, 2 April 1976

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

A ten-day truce had bee decided, in order to elect a new President of the Republic after the expected departure of Sleiman Frangieh.
What the books addParliament used the truce to amend Article 73 of the constitution so that Frangieh's successor could be elected early: on 9 April according to Hanf, 10 April according to Yara El Khoury. The truce had coincided with the arrival on 31 March of the US envoy Dean Brown.

Other dates in the books: Wednesday, 31 March 1976, Friday, 9 April 1976, Saturday, 10 April 1976

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Friday, 9 April 1976

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Parliament amends the constitution to allow an early presidential election.
With Syria enforcing a truce, deputies changed Article 73 of the constitution so that Frangieh's successor could be elected up to six months before his term ended, not two.

Sources differ: Hanf gives 9 April, Yara El Khoury 10 April.

Other date in the books: Saturday, 10 April 1976

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Syrian forces enter the Bekaa; Saiqa moves to relieve besieged Zahleh.
Syrian army tanks appeared at Anjar, Judaydat Yabus and Bayadir al-Adas, inside Lebanon, while Saiqa fighters came in and began to relieve besieged Zahleh. When Jumblatt asked, Dean Brown said the Syrians were clearing roads.

Sources differ: The original entry 62 dates the Syrian entry into the Bekaa to 10 April.

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Monday, 12 April 1976

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Assad attacks the National Movement and offers to intervene.
Pierre Gemayel called it a historic speech: in Damascus, President Assad said Syria was ready to send forces into Lebanon to protect any oppressed group, Christian or Muslim, and attacked the PLO and National Movement leaders.

Sources differ: Traboulsi's chronology lists 'al-Asad's speech attacking LNM' under '13 March', apparently a misprint for 12 April.

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Thursday, 15 April 1976

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

Despite the extension of the truce, several fronts were set ablaze, including those in Beirut.
A new agreement, called the Damascus Agreement, was likely to be applied in the next 48 hours. Syrian and Resistance leaders had signed it. The agreement stipulated ending hostilities, reactivating the 'Supreme Military Committee', refusing the partition of Lebanon, rejecting American arrangements and plans in Lebanon, continuing the Syrian initiative and refusing the internationalization or the 'Arabization' of the Lebanese crisis. Also, an agreement had been reached stipulating the withdrawal of Syrian troops that entered the Bekaa region on April 10, back to the Masnaa borderline.
What the books addTraboulsi's chronology puts the Syrian-PLO accord to restore order in Beirut on 11 April. Around 9 April Syrian army tanks entered the Bekaa at Anjar, Judaydat Yabus and Bayadir al-Adas (Traboulsi), some forty in all according to Yara El Khoury, as Saiqa fighters set about ending the siege of Zahleh.

Other dates in the books: Friday, 9 April 1976, Sunday, 11 April 1976

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April 1979

Sunday, 22 April 1979

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Attack on Nahariya; Israeli officers set up a secret bombing front in Lebanon.
Senior Israeli officers answered a Palestinian raid on Nahariya, in northern Israel, by creating the 'Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners', manned by Lebanese of several communities. Up to 1983 its bombs killed hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinians, civilians and fighters alike. Prime Minister Begin was told of it only in June 1980.

Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne attribute the Nahariya attack to the PFLP.

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April 1980

mid-April 1980: day not established

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Irish UNIFIL soldier Stephen Griffin is killed in fighting at At-Tiri.
Fighting broke out at At-Tiri between Saad Haddad's militia and UNIFIL. Militia gunmen killed Private Stephen Griffin, 21, of the Irish battalion, and UN soldiers killed a local militiaman; two of his brothers were later held responsible for the murder of two other Irish soldiers.

Sources differ: Fisk's wording implies 18 April. Stored entries 346 and 347 (10 and 12 April) describe Israeli and militia action against UNIFIL in the same days.

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April 1980: day not established

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Nabih Berri becomes leader of the Amal movement.
The lawyer Nabih Berri took over Amal after a short spell under the deputy Hussein Husseini. Under Berri the movement fought the Palestinian organisations and their Lebanese allies, and called for Palestinian fighters to leave residential districts and for the Lebanese army to be sent south.

Sources differ: Hanf and de Clerck and Malsagne's 2020 article give April 1980; the other books give only the year. The 2020 article and the 2025 book are by the same authors.

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April 1981

Thursday, 2 April 1981

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

The battle of Zahleh begins.
From December 1980 the Syrian army held positions on the edge of Zahleh. Lebanese Forces fighters in the town repulsed its attack, and a siege of roughly 90 days followed, which Bashir Gemayel portrayed as a fight for 'the last Christian town' of the East.

Sources differ: Ménargues ends the siege on 30 June 1981 and Fisk by 1 July; de Clerck & Malsagne (p. 80) place the end of hostilities in May–June.

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Saturday, 4 April 1981

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

An intensive bombardment in Zahleh killed 20 and injured 100.
What the books addMénargues dates a day of intensive shelling of Zahleh, with about twenty dead, to 6 April.

Other date in the books: Monday, 6 April 1981

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Sunday, 5 April 1981

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Israel says it will not stand by over Zahleh; the US Secretary of State is in Jerusalem.
Haig reached Jerusalem on his first official visit as Secretary of State and discussed Lebanon at length with Begin. Hours earlier, leaving a cabinet meeting almost wholly on Lebanon, Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir had said Israel could not stay passive.

Sources differ: Hanf attributes the 'will not stand by' statement to Begin; Ménargues to Shamir.

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Tuesday, 7 April 1981

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

The Arab Strike Force maintained it pressure on Zahleh by bombarding it for the seventh consecutive day.

Other date in the books: Tuesday, 31 March 1981

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Sunday, 12 April 1981

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

Following several days of violent confrontations with the Phalange militia, the Arab Strike Force completed its occupation of the most strategic hills of Zahleh. The supply channels between the capital of the Bekaa and Mount Lebanon were closed.
What the books addMénargues writes that Syrian special forces, landed by helicopter at dawn on 10 April, soon took the heights of Qalaat Aramta and Deir Charfé around Zahleh, leaving its defenders almost encircled.

Other date in the books: Friday, 10 April 1981

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Wednesday, 22 April 1981

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

The nightmare continued. The Lebanese authorities were completely powerless to stop the violence and the conflicting parties were unable to reach an agreement. The Beirut International Airport was closed to traffic and both dead and wounded victims continued to shed their blood on this agonizing Lebanese land.
What the books addAccording to Ménargues, Bashir Gemayel answered the collapse of a cease-fire on 22 April, which left 140 dead or wounded in Beirut within hours, by having the international airport shelled. On 11 May US ambassador John Gunther Dean urged the Lebanese Forces, via Alfred Madi, to let it reopen; that evening they dropped their objection.

Other date in the books: Monday, 11 May 1981

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Friday, 24 April 1981

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Syrian helicopter-borne troops seize the summit of Mount Sannine.
Helicopter-borne Syrian special forces overran the Lebanese Forces' posts on Sannine's crest, among them the 'French Room', a mountain post the French built in 1939. Holding Sannine let the Syrians dominate the Christian region down to the coast. Israel's air strike of 28 April followed.

Sources differ: The date is disputed: 24 April (Ménargues), 26 April (Hanf), 21 April for a first landing and 27 April for the fort (Phalangists quoted by Fisk). Ménargues gives the most detail (hour, units, commander), but he relies heavily on Lebanese Forces sources.

Other dates in the books: Tuesday, 21 April 1981, Sunday, 26 April 1981

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Wednesday, 29 April 1981

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Syria deploys SAM missiles in the Bekaa: the 'missile crisis'.
A day after Israel downed two Syrian helicopters, Syria set up SAM-6 and SAM-2 batteries openly in the Bekaa, near Rayak and Chtaura. Israel demanded their removal; de Clerck and Malsagne see the deployment as the first direct Syrian-Israeli confrontation.

Sources differ: Traboulsi names the missiles as Sam 3, the other sources as SAM-6 and SAM-2. Traboulsi's own chronology (p. 252) places the battle of Zahleh and the missile crisis in March 1980, contradicting his main text.

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April 1982

Wednesday, 21 April 1982

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

Six successive raids were reported within 90 minutes against Aramoun, Naameh and Damour, putting an end to a cease-fire that lasted 9 months. This new aggression claimed the lives of 80 victims.
What the books addFisk, on the coast road when it began, dates the Damour raid to 22 April: Israeli jets struck for over two hours, killing at least 19 Palestinians; Israel cited the death of a soldier on a mine in the south. For Fisk it previewed the invasion.

Other date in the books: Thursday, 22 April 1982

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April 1983

Tuesday, 26 April 1983

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

The Phalangist militia handed over the alleged assassin of Bechir Gemayel, Habib Chartouni, to the Army.
What the books addMénargues dates the handover to 28 April 1983. Held in an army intelligence cell at the Defence Ministry in Yarze, Chartouni admitted the killing before the military prosecutor that day. The case was later handed by Amine Gemayel's cabinet to a constitutional High Court that had never been created; he was freed on 13 October 1990.

Other date in the books: Thursday, 28 April 1983

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April 1985

Monday, 1 April 1985

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

The region of Saida was heavily bombarded. Artillery duels opposed the Lebanese Forces on the one hand, to local antigovernment militias and army units that don't follow the commandment of Yarzeh on the other.

Other date in the books: Wednesday, 24 April 1985

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Friday, 26 April 1985

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

The Islamic-Progressive militias rushed into Christian villages next to Saida. Thousands of families were forced out of their homes. Tens of Christian villages in the Iqlim El Kharroub and East of Saida were looted, vandalized, and burned. The State was more powerless than ever, the Lebanese Army being unable to stop the massacres.
What the books addAbout fifty Christian villages east of Sidon and in the Iqlim al-Kharroub were taken. Estimates of the Christians displaced range from 70,000 (Picard) and 85,000-86,000 (Hanf) to 80,000-125,000 (de Clerck and Malsagne), many reaching East Beirut by sea; few have returned. Hanf writes that the Kharroub villages were razed with Transport Ministry equipment; Fisk describes Mieh Mieh looted and torn down, and a well filled with corpses at Jiyeh after the Druze took it.

Other date in the books: Wednesday, 24 April 1985

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April 1985: day not established

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Antoine Lahad sets up the South Lebanon Army.
With Israel gone from Tyre, Antoine Lahad recast the Army of Free Lebanon as the South Lebanon Army, an Israeli-funded and Israeli-armed militia that held the 'security zone'.

Sources differ: The SLA's make-up: mostly Shia troops under Christian cadres (de Clerck and Malsagne) or mostly Christian (Picard).

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April 1986

Thursday, 17 April 1986

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

The British teachers John Leigh Douglas and Philip Ralph Patfield, kidnapped on the 28th of March 1986, were executed and their bodies were thrown on the Roueissat-Sofar road. A cameraman, John McCarthy, was kidnapped on the Beirut International Airport road. An extremist organization announced the hanging of Alec Colett, a British journalist who was working at the UNRWA. The dead body of Peter Kilburn, librarian at the AUB, who was kidnapped on the 3rd of December 1984, was also found. Furthermore, the British embassy in Zokak EL Blatt was partially destroyed and burned by rocket shots.
What the books addFisk: Libyan agents in Beirut had bought Kilburn and both British teachers from freelance kidnappers; the deaths were reported the night of the US raid on Libya.
Art and memory
  • book John McCarthy and Brian Keenan, held together in Beirut, later wrote Between Extremes together, about a journey they had planned while in captivity; it is listed in 111101's References.

Other date in the books: Friday, 28 March 1986

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April 1987

Sunday, 5 April 1987

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

An agreement was concluded between the National Palestinian Salvation Front and the Amal movement under the aegis of Ghazi Kanaan. This agreement stipulated a global cease-fire and the end of the camps' blockade in Beirut
What the books addUnder the 5 April accord, reached by Amal, the PLO and the pro-Syrian Palestinian National Salvation Front with the Syrian general Ghazi Kanaan present, the blockade was to be lifted, the wounded taken out and the PLO was to leave three villages near Sidon. Food and medicine then reached Chatila and Bourj al-Barajneh, the first since March. Picard dates the end of the siege to an Amal-Palestinian agreement of 11 September 1987; Hanf has Amal lifting the blockade only on 18 January 1988.

Other dates in the books: Friday, 11 September 1987, Monday, 18 January 1988

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April 1987: day not established

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

Clerics propose an Islamic republic for Lebanon, with a draft constitution.
Amal's leaders distanced themselves from an Iranian-style draft constitution by Iranian and Lebanese clerics: all laws to follow Islamic law, an all-Shi'i council to design the new order, autonomy for minorities where they were the majority.

Sources differ: Hanf's footnote 220 dates the same Hottinger article to 6 May 1987, his bibliography to 6 April 1987.

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April 1988

Tuesday, 5 April 1988

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

The Amal-Hezbollah war begins in the south.
Amal launched an offensive to disarm Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Brief fighting, notably at Nabatiyeh and Ghaziyeh, went Amal's way, and armed Hezbollah fighters vanished from view there. A three-phase 'war of brothers' had begun, lasting until November 1990.

Sources differ: Existing entry 1068 dates the fall of Nabatiyeh to Amal to 6 April. Picard's chronology gives 28 November 1988 for the beginning of Amal-Hezbollah clashes. The Confluences article is by the same authors as de Clerck's book.

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Wednesday, 6 April 1988

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

Following combats between Amal and Hezbollah, Nabatiyeh falls in the hands of Amal militiamen.
What the books addThe books date the start of the Amal-Hezbollah fighting in the south to 5 April 1988 (de Clerck); Picard's chronology gives 28 November 1988, which seems to describe the later round in Beirut.

Other dates in the books: Tuesday, 5 April 1988, Monday, 28 November 1988

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Saturday, 30 April 1988

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

The body of Bishop Albert Khoreiche was discovered in the forest of Chnaiir, provoking consternation in every milieu. He had disappeared eight days earlier in mysterious conditions.
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne (p. 420) identify the victim as head of the Maronite religious court and nephew of the former Patriarch Khoreiche. His body was discovered in a Ghazir forest on 1 May 1988, and the killing was attributed to the Lebanese Forces.

Other date in the books: Sunday, 1 May 1988

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April 1989

Tuesday, 11 April 1989

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

The French Secretary of State to the Human Action, Bernard Kouchner, arrives in Beirut in order to prepare and explain the arrival of the hospital ship 'La Rance' and the oil tanker 'Penhors'.
What the books addBadly wounded people from East and West Beirut were evacuated on French ships. Hanf says France sent its hospital ship and petrol tanker to back Aoun, then, after Syrian threats, called them humanitarian aid for all Lebanese.

Other date in the books: Saturday, 22 April 1989

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April 1990

Tuesday, 3 April 1990

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

The chief of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, joins President Hraoui, while General Michel Aoun turns to the Arab Troika. At the same time, the N.L.P. withdraws from the commandment of the Lebanese Forces.
What the books addHanf: Hrawi made unconditional acceptance of Taif the price of help when Geagea, after losing Ain al-Rummaneh, turned to the 'legal authorities' (Hrawi and the Hoss government) and passed four captured Fouga-Magister aircraft to General Lahoud's Qlayaat base. Aoun, low on fuel and ammunition, was supplied by the SSNP and Hobeika's pro-Syrian militia (Hanf); de Clerck and Malsagne also name Frangieh and Jumblatt.

Other date in the books: Friday, 16 February 1990

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Monday, 23 April 1990

The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology

While the blockade war rages between the Lebanese Army and the Lebanese Forces, the President of the Republic declines Geagea's offer to surrender to him the barracks of Jbeil and the Kesrouan.

Other date in the books: Friday, 16 February 1990

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April to early May 1990: day not established

The Lebanese war · Added from the books

The army is stopped short of the Lebanese Forces headquarters at Karantina.
In April, Vatican, US and Israeli pressure stopped the army short of Karantina, the Lebanese Forces' headquarters, which it was preparing to storm after taking the Metn and upper Kisrawan in weeks of fighting that killed several hundred. De Clerck and Malsagne also cite the jamming of army radios by Israeli radars in militia hands, officers won over or bought by the militia, and Patriarch Sfeir's threat to excommunicate Christian soldiers.

Sources differ: Hanf sees stalemate from March, the Lebanese Forces keeping Karantina, with no hint it was about to fall; for Fisk, by July Aoun and Geagea each held half the Christian enclave.

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