lebanese war
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1975/1990
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70 news for the 10th, 22nd of every month

with the books

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September 10, 1975wednesday
General Said, 52 years old, replaced General Ghanem at the head of the army.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf: Franjieh accepted Karami's condition for sending the army between Tripoli and Zgharta, Ghanem's removal; his replacement, Hanna Said, was a 'politically uncontentious' colonel.

November 10, 1975monday
An emissary of Pope Paul VI arrived to Beirut holding a papal message
Cardinal Bertoli called all leaders to start working for the restoration of peace.

\_this day in full the books also date it 9 November 1975 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Cardinal Paolo Bertoli's mission lasted from 9 to 14 November 1975 (de Clerck and Malsagne's chronology). Like the French envoy Couve de Murville, he backed a limited revision of the National Pact.

December 22, 1975monday
Thousands of armed elements attempted to invade Zahleh
The army riposted and hundreds of shells, mortars and rockets, fell on the Town. Simultaneously, bloody fights were reported in Tripoli.

\_this day in full the books also date it 20 December 1975 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Bishop Yuhanna Bassul's diary records 500 shells hitting Zahleh on the night of 22 December, with some 15,000 fedayeen gathered in the plain; at his appeal the army's Maghawir commando regiment came to help. Hanf writes that 3,000 men of the PLA's Yarmouk Brigade had entered from Syria on 20 December and besieged the town, which Syrian positions also shelled.

January 22, 1976thursday
While the Palestine Liberation Army controlled the Akkar and the Bekaa with the exception of Zahleh, a cease-fire was concluded under the aegis of Syria.

\_this day in full the books also date it 23 January 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Traboulsi, de Clerck and Malsagne, and Yara El Khoury date the Syrian-mediated cease-fire to 23 January. PLA and Saiqa units attacked Zgharta in the north but were repulsed, and Zahleh, besieged, held out.

September 22, 1976wednesday
Bechir Gemayel announced the creation of an army to defend Lebanon.

\_this day in full the books also date it 25 March 1976, 31 August 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Ménargues dates the formal unification of the Christian militias under Bashir Gemayel's command to 31 August 1976; Yara El Khoury has it announced to President Frangieh in early September 1976. According to de Clerck and Malsagne, 'Lebanese Forces' was not the official name until 1981, but the unified command was officially founded on 25 March 1976.

October 22, 1976friday
The effective cease-fire was a partial success.
Observers considered however that this result was encouraging after 10 months of fierce combats. But the situation could deteriorate at any moment given the unrest in South Lebanon. Bloody fights were reported between the 'common forces' on the one hand, and rightist parties within the South Lebanon Army (SLA) on the other, supported by Israeli artillery.

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In 1976 Major Saad Haddad's force was known as the Army of Free Lebanon; it took the name South Lebanon Army only in 1985. Agreed through American mediation, the 'red line' kept Syrian and other Arab troops out of the south, where Palestinians and Christian militias kept fighting and Israel backed Haddad (Hanf).

March 10, 1977thursday
The cost of living had substantially increased in Lebanon. Meat, sugar, cheese, oil and chicken tripled since before 1975. Fares varied from a region to another due to the lack of control.

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January 10, 1978tuesday
Within 3 weeks, four explosive charges were placed next to Saeb Salam's home.

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January 22, 1978sunday
The Lebanese Front adopted a coexistence formula.
Leaders of the Lebanese Front, gathered at President Frangieh's home in Zghorta since the day before, inaugurated their seminar which main themes were the national understanding, the project of Palestinians settlement in Lebanon, and the internal organization of the Front itself. Their final press release made it clear that the Palestinian presence constituted an obstacle to the national understanding and that Lebanon rejected any kind of union.

\_this day in full the books also date it 21 January 1977 \_on this day

March 22, 1978wednesday
The first ' Blue Helmets ' arrived to the South.

\_this day in full the books also date it 23 March 1978 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Fisk dates the arrival in Tyre of UNIFIL's first unit, Colonel Jean Germain Salvan's French paratroopers, to 23 March. That morning, at the nearby Hassan Borro barracks, Palestinians and Lebanese officers nearly opened fire over the handover.

August 10, 1978thursday
While the bombardment of Acharafieh continued, the Arab Strike Force evacuated twelve positions in this district. Christian parties requested the evacuation of the Port and the Karantina and that Saudis and Sudanese soldiers replace the Syrian soldiers.

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Avoiding the risk of hitting their own men, and leaving positions hard to hold, were the main aims of the Syrian pull-back in Hanf's reading: a tactical move.

August 22, 1978tuesday
Raymond Eddeh called the UN Security Council to hold a meeting. The leader of the National Bloc declared 'My country is like a man that is sinking in a marsh and is being shot.

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September 10, 1978sunday
Imam Moussa Sadr, a Shiite leader disappeared while visiting Libya. Libyans asserted that he left Tripoli for Rome. Sadr never arrived to Rome, and the Lebanese were worried.

\_this day in full the books also date it 25 August 1978, 13 September 1978 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Musa al-Sadr travelled to Libya on 25 August (de Clerck and Malsagne) at the invitation of the Libyan government (Ménargues) and was never seen again; Hanf dates the disappearance to September. Beirut papers speculated about the Shah's secret police or Libyan intelligence. Fisk writes that he was almost certainly killed in Libya. The loss mobilised the Shi'a and later strengthened Amal.

January 22, 1979monday
One of the closest collaborators of Yasser Arafat, Ali Hassan Salameh, nicknamed of Abou Hassan, died in an explosion. The attack that took place in the Snoubra sector caused 11 dead and 17 injured.

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According to de Clerck and Malsagne, a Mossad agent detonated a bomb in a Volkswagen as Salameh's Chevrolet passed. His wife, Georgina Rizk, had been Lebanon's first Miss Universe.

April 10, 1979tuesday
Israel launched a double air strike against military targets in Tyr and Damour. 3 people dead and 15 injured were reported. President Hoss began an Arab tour trying to obtain the renewal of the mandate of the Arabic Strike Force.

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April 22, 1979sunday
In a new episode of the vendetta opposing the Zghoriotes to the Phalangists, a massacre was perpetrated in Shmout, in the caza of Jbeil, where the Marada shot 11 Phalangist militiamen.

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July 10, 1979tuesday
An artillery duel opposed the Arab Strike Force to the Lebanese Forces in Hadeth.

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July 22, 1979sunday
The Israeli aviation bombarded Damour, Naameh, Sarafand and Adloun, making heavy casualties: 18 dead and 70 wounded including women and children.

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September 22, 1979saturday
President Elias Sarkis delivered an important speech, in which he emphasized the overriding role the army should play. Without it 'the State will be a body with no soul', he said. He insisted that the Arabs should stop to shilly-shally about Southern Lebanon.

\_this day in full the books also date it 13 March 1979 \_on this day

November 22, 1979thursday
For the first time since 1974, the Lebanese celebrated Independence Day with showiness.

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Hanf writes that West Beirut's Sunnis sided with the Shi'is on National Day, which became a protest against every foreign armed presence; cedar flags hung all over the city.

January 22, 1980tuesday
The Arab Strike Force withdrew from the road going South. This initiative surprised the authorities.

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Hanf places it in early 1980. Palestine Liberation Army units under Syrian or pro-Syrian command took over the Syrian posts in and near Beirut, while the Syrian troops, bar one garrison, quit the city's dividing line and the coast road to the south and redeployed to the heights above the capital.

March 22, 1980saturday
Tanker owners suspended the delivery of fuel causing a gas shortage in Beirut. Strikers claimed the return of vehicles that had disappeared in Saida.

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April 10, 1980thursday
Israelis settled in the UNIFL zone, but withdrew progressively in the following days. Beirut called upon the Security Council to convene urgently.

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\_what the books add

Fisk: violating the UN's agreements with Israel, Haddad's militia set up positions inside the UNIFIL zone in spring 1980, beside At-Tiri, near Beit Yahoun and at ruined Rashaf, where it parked a Sherman tank reached by a road built with Israeli help.

April 22, 1980tuesday
A car parked 50 meters away from the regional office of the Phalange Party in Jdeideh exploded injuring 5 persons.

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October 10, 1980friday
A rocket was fired on the US embassy, but the projectile fell on an adjacent building without making any victim.

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October 22, 1980wednesday
Chafic Wazzan was asked to form a new government, while Israel launched an air strike againt Damour. The aerial Traffic at the Beirut International Airport was interrupted.

\_this day in full the books also date it 25 October 1980 \_on this day

\_what the books add

In Ménargues's account the appointment came on 25 October, after Damascus had vetoed Takieddine Solh and put up three candidates including Hoss; by picking none of them Sarkis disregarded Syrian advice for the first time in his presidency.

November 10, 1980monday
A double assault spread terror in Achrafieh.
Two car bombs stuffed with 140 kg of TNT exploded and killed 10 persons and injured 70 others. The first explosion occurred at a busy hour, when school busses were taking students back home, in one of Achrafieh’s streets. The second car blew up twenty minutes later, on Elias Baaklini street, next to the Shell gas station. The second explosion was aiming to kill those who would rush on the street after the first one went off.

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Ménargues counts 10 dead and 62 wounded from two car bombs in Achrafieh, Bashir Gemayel's power base.

March 10, 1981tuesday
The convoy of the United States ambassador in Lebanon skimmed automatic arm shots in the port's sector.

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April 10, 1981friday
During his meeting in Strasbourg, the European Parliament called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon, except for the UNIFL.

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April 10, 1981friday
Israel bombarded Delhamiye and Arab Salim killing 16 persons.

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April 22, 1981wednesday
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.

\_this day in full the books also date it 11 May 1981 \_on this day

\_what the books add

According 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.

May 22, 1981friday
While the US envoy Philip Habib continued his trips between the different belligerents, the missile question seemed to be far from being settled as the parties concerned toughened their positions.

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July 10, 1981friday
In retaliation to an air raid launched by Israel in Southern Lebanon, the Palestinians bombarded Kyriat Shmona injuring 14 Israelis.

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\_what the books add

Ménargues counts 6 dead and 20 wounded in the two raids, on Democratic Front sites at Habbouch (near Nabatiyeh) and Ghaziyeh (near Sidon). Hanf dates the Israel–PLO 'Fourteen Day War' from them.

December 10, 1981thursday
Terrorism stroke in Tripoli where an attack caused 12 dead and 75 injured.

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March 10, 1982wednesday
In his new mission to prevent the outbreak of war on the Lebanese-Israeli borderline, Habib gave insurances but no guarantees. At the same time, two car bombs exploded in Zouk and Maameltein.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne, drawing on Ronen Bergman, attribute to Ariel Sharon a series of car bombings from October 1981, carried out under the name 'Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners' and aimed chiefly at Palestinians, to provoke retaliation that could justify an invasion. They list no individual attacks, so this bombing cannot be matched to their account.

April 10, 1982saturday
The cease-fire in the South was fragile. Lebanon appealed to Washington, to the Security Council, and to the Arab League to stabilize the situation.

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June 10, 1982thursday
The Lebanese Army deployed in West Beirut.

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July 10, 1982saturday
Philip Habib suggested that the French troops evacuate the Fedayin.
Despite the approval of this formula by Beirut, Paris, and the PLO, an obstacle subsisted: the destination country of the Palestinian fighters.

\_this day in full the books also date it 7 July 1982 \_on this day

September 10, 1982friday
The Marines left Beirut after having accomplished their mission.

\_this day in full the books also date it 11 September 1982 \_on this day

\_what the books add

The Marines pulled out on 10 September, a week or more before their mandate expired; the Italians left on 11 September and the French on 12–13 September (Ménargues, Hanf). Their last landing craft bore a 'Mission accomplished' banner. The Sabra and Chatila massacre began a few days after the last French troops left.

October 22, 1982friday
Having received and international back up to his efforts, the President of the Republic focused on boosting the negotiations to reach a comprehensive resolution of the Lebanese question. The short-term goals were: an agreement on the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon and an increase in the size of the Multinational Force, as well as an extension of its area of deployment which was currently limited to Beirut and its close surroundings.

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