83 news for the 11th, 28th of every month
with the bookspage 1 of 3 next
The 70th Maronite patriarch of Antioch and the Middle East died of a hart attack. He was 81 years old.
\_this day in full the books also date it 3 February 1975 \_on this day
\_this day in full the books also date it 15 March 1976 \_on this day
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On 11 March Brigadier-General Aziz al-Ahdab, Beirut garrison commander (retired, says Traboulsi), seized the television station, named himself interim military governor and called for Frangieh's resignation and an early election. Few troops stood behind him and Syria opposed him: on 15 March PLA and Saiqa units under Syrian control blocked his men and Khatib's Lebanese Arab Army on their way to Baabda. Backed by Chamoun, Gemayel and President Assad, Frangieh refused to go.
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From Sarkis's inauguration on 23 September Hanf counts three quiet days, the Semiramis Hotel attack in Damascus and a Syrian move two days after it, placing this offensive at about 28 September. The Palestinian and leftist forces lost the Upper Metn; Traboulsi notes that the Joint Forces' largest concentration, there under Abu Khalid al-Amleh, never engaged the advancing Syrians.
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De Clerck and Malsagne report that Eddé went into exile in Paris after surviving three attempts on his life, one of them outside his home.
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APUR, the Atelier parisien d'urbanisme, drew up this 1977 plan, the earliest of three reconstruction studies made during the war.
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Muslim leaders accused Hanna Saïd, commander since September 1975, of leniency towards the Lebanese Front (Traboulsi: of closeness to the dissident troops in the south). His replacement, Victor Khoury, a Constitutional Bloc sympathiser committed to Christian-Muslim coexistence, ran the army and its rebuilding from March 1977 to December 1982.
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Sami al-Khatib took over the ADF from Ahmad al-Hajj, who never won Syria's trust, and led it until 1983.
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By now Syria was fighting on the Palestinians' side. Hanf says the clashes ended once the Arab Deterrent Force's Saudi and Sudanese contingents deployed between Chiyah and Ain el-Remmaneh.
Forty persons from the Christian town of Kaa and its surroundings were kidnapped from their homes at night. 26 were executed at dawn, and their bodies were left in a mass grave. The Lebanese population and especially the Greek Catholic community, to which the victims belonged, were terrorized and distressed.
\_this day in full the books also date it 27 June 1978, 29 June 1978 \_on this day
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The Qaa massacre is dated to the night of 27-28 June (de Clerck and Malsagne) or to 29 June (Hanf); Ras Baalbek and Jdeidet al-Fakiha were also raided. De Clerck and Malsagne blame Syrians in civilian clothes, carrying name lists and guided by local Christian members of the SSNP and the Communist Party, and see the killings as revenge for Ehden. Hanf counts 26 dead, de Clerck and Malsagne 32 to 36. The community's Supreme Council asked that a day of national mourning be held.
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The Saudis announced their departure in March 1979 (Ménargues). Picard has Syria's partners, among them Saudis, Sudanese and Emiratis, leaving two years after the 1976 summits; de Clerck and Malsagne call the ADF wholly Syrian from 1979.
While Hoss discussed with Abou Ayad a Lebanese Palestinian understanding platform, Israel laid two conditions for peace: the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon and the end of Palestinian raids, according to what Menahem Begin affirmed to the American delegate, Philip Habib in Jerusalem.
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Hanf: Dany Chamoun left politics, but his father Camille, badly shaken by the loss of his party's militia, put the Lebanese Front's political unity first and remained its chairman.
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Ménargues has two Syrian helicopters downed: a Mi-8 supply craft, hit by F-15s around noon just after leaving Rayak, and a French-built Alouette late in the day; in between, jets struck ADF positions around Sannine. Israel acted at Christian leaders' request once Syria held Sannine's summit; next day Syria answered with surface-to-air missiles in the Bekaa.
\_this day in full the books also date it 12 September 1981 \_on this day
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Ménargues sets the agreement at the Vigilance Committee meeting of 11 September, where Syria's Mohammad Ghanem came out for deploying the Lebanese Army from Sodeco to the port. The Museum crossing, almost completely shut for five months, reopened on 12 September.
\_this day in full the books also date it 4 June 1982, 14 June 1982 \_on this day
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Robert Fisk cites Red Cross and police counts of 9,583 killed and 16,608 wounded across Lebanon by 14 June; Israel's own civilian casualty figure for 4-21 June was 460. Hanf notes that the Syrian-Israeli ceasefire of 11 June excluded the PLO.
\_this day in full the books also date it 27 June 1982, 30 June 1982 \_on this day
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Fisk dates the PLO's statement that it would leave Beirut, made public by Saeb Salam, to 30 June; Hanf puts its agreement in principle only at the end of July. On 27 June an Israeli cabinet statement had first floated a negotiated exit: the Lebanese army would take over West Beirut and the disarmed fighters would leave by road for Syria (Ménargues).
\_this day in full the books also date it 17 May 1983 \_on this day
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