65 news for the 14th, 15th of every month
with the bookspage 1 of 2 next
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.
\_this day in full the books also date it 16 May 1975 \_on this day
\_what the books add
After 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.
\_this day in full the books also date it 8 December 1975, 9 December 1975 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Hanf has the Murabitun, discreetly backed by the Palestinians, going on the offensive against the Kataeb downtown and around the hotels on 8 December and seizing the Phoenicia and St Georges. Traboulsi places an army attempt to retake the two hotels on 9 December.
\_this day in full the books also date it 11 March 1976, 13 March 1976 \_on this day
\_what the books add
The deputies' petition demanding Frangieh's resignation is dated 11 March in Traboulsi's chronology and 13 March by de Clerck and Malsagne; Picard and Traboulsi's chronology count 68 signatures out of 99, Traboulsi's narrative 69. On 15 March Syrian-controlled PLA and Saiqa units halted a march on the Baabda palace by the Lebanese Arab Army and al-Ahdab's followers. Within days Khatib's force grew to a few thousand men and held most of the army's heavy weapons.
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.
\_this day in full the books also date it 9 April 1976, 11 April 1976 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Traboulsi'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.
\_this day in full the books also date it 9 June 1976 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Picard (2016) dates to 9 June 1976 the Arab League Council resolution, taken in Cairo, that created an Arab peace force. Hanf has some 2,000 Sudanese arriving first, then Libyans; Picard (2002) says Tripoli sent 500 men in June.
The Arab Strike Force including mainly Syrians started to advance on various axes leading to the heart of the capital, as well as the Chouf, the Kesrouan, and Jbeil. 8,000 infantrymen and 250 armored vehicles converged towards the districts of Beirut and the front line.
\_this day in full the books also date it 14 November 1976, 16 November 1976 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Hanf puts the entry of about 6,000 Syrian soldiers, in the peace force's green helmets, into East and West Beirut on 14 November. Fisk's report in The Times of 16 November dated their occupation of the whole city to the previous morning, with 6,000 men and hundreds of tanks; the last firing, near the port, ended on 16 November, Fisk recounts.
Intense diplomatic activity was carried on in Beirut. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs started an official visit. The American Secretary of State met, during a visit to the Middle East, with President Sarkis in Beirut reassuring him that the United States supports the independence, unity and territorial integrity of the country. He announced a 50 million dollars aid to Lebanon.
25,000 men backed by the aviation, armored vehicles and artillery invaded, within 2 hours, a tenth of Lebanon and forced Palestinians to withdraw to the North of the Litani. A first estimate reported 700 deaths and 160,000 displaced persons. Refugees rushed to Beirut causing a serious social problem. Air raids bombarded Damour, Ouzaï, and Tyr.
\_this day in full the books also date it 15 March 1978 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Historians date the start of Operation Litani to 14 March (de Clerck and Malsagne, Traboulsi, Quéméner; de Clerck's chronology gives 15 March) and its end to 21 March. Up to 25,000 Israeli soldiers and 120 tanks took part (de Clerck and Malsagne). Estimates of the dead range from about 300 Palestinian fighters (de Clerck and Malsagne) to about 2,000 people, mostly civilians (Fisk; de Clerck and Malsagne; Picard). Estimates of the displaced range from 150,000 (Hanf's refugee table) and more than 200,000 (de Clerck and Malsagne, Picard) to 285,000 (Lebanese government figure cited by Fisk). On 15 March Israeli aircraft bombed the Palestinian camps of Beirut, Tyre and Damour.
\_this day in full the books also date it 12 May 1979 \_on this day
\_what the books add
De Clerck and Malsagne date the start of the fighting between Kataeb and National Liberal Party militias to 12 May 1979, at Furn el-Chebbak; clashes recurred in various places until July 1980.
Heavy fights opposed the Lebanese Forces to the Lebanese army at the Beirut River's Corniche and in Oyoune el Simane.
\_this day in full the books also date it 18 June 1979 \_on this day
\_this day in full the books also date it 16 December 1981 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Ménargues dates the bombing to 16 December. The six-storey embassy at Ramlet al-Baida was destroyed by an explosives-laden car driven by Shiite suicide attackers; a group nobody knew claimed it, and the ambassador's body took four days to find. It followed heavy fighting in West Beirut on 4 December between Amal and pro-Iraqi Baathists, and a Lebanese Forces visit to Baghdad.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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The victims were Guy Cavallo, the French military attaché's cipher clerk, and his wife, murdered at their West Beirut home.
\_this day in full the books also date it 16 September 1982 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Bashir Gemayel was killed at about 4 p.m. during his weekly visit to the Kataeb office in Ashrafieh, nine days before taking office. The bomb, about 35 kilos of explosive, had been placed two days earlier in the flat above by Habib Tanios Chartouni, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, arrested on 16 September (Ménargues). Prime Minister Wazzan announced the death at midnight. Hanf counts 26 dead.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
In Ménargues's account of the Bikfaya funeral, Bashir's coffin was carried from the church of Mar Abda onto a gun carriage before the entire government, the diplomatic corps and every deputy, even those who had boycotted his election. Israeli troops had entered West Beirut at 5 a.m. that day, breaching the agreement negotiated by Philip Habib.
\_this day in full the books also date it 1 March 1983 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Early in 1983 the Eighth Brigade went into all of Beirut, the east included, under a plan to collect light arms in the city and clear heavy weapons and gunmen from Greater Beirut. The Lebanese Forces resisted, then on 1 March 1983 agreed to return East Beirut and the port's fifth basin to the state.
\_this day in full the books also date it 15 May 1983 \_on this day
\_what the books add
De Clerck and Malsagne say the deputies were told of the text at a closed session on 15 May; Prime Minister Wazzan approved it and sent it to the president, and that month 70 of the 91 deputies still in office backed the government.
\_this day in full the books also date it 15 June 1983 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Counts differ: Hanf has 64 for, 2 against and 4 abstentions among 70 deputies present (40 of 50 Christian and 24 of 41 Muslim members in favour); Traboulsi has 65 for, 2 against and 4 abstentions; Fisk puts the vote on 15 June. Traboulsi says the government formally renounced the agreement on 5 March 1984, Amine Gemayel never having signed it.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
The New Jersey fired shells, not bombs: one-ton 16-inch rounds, according to Fisk. De Clerck and Malsagne say its rounds often missed, by up to 9,000 metres, and killed civilians; Christians called it 'New Jersa', a new shame.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
On 15 December, after 102 days, the siege of Deir el-Qamar ended. Israel brokered the departure of Samir Geagea's Lebanese Forces and most refugees for East Beirut; the town was left mainly to its elderly.
\_this day in full the books also date it 9 January 1984 \_on this day
\_this day in full the books also date it 15 February 1984 \_on this day
\_what the books add
De Clerck and Malsagne give 14 February 1984 for the PSP's capture of the Chahhar district, part of a week-long uprising in Beirut and the mountain.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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Hanf counts some 15,000 Christian civilians leaving the coastal Chouf for Israeli-occupied territory; Mechref is not named.
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