lebanese war
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17 news for the 16th of January–March, September, December

with the books
January 16, 1976friday
For the first time since the beginning of the war, the Lebanese aviation intervened against Palestinian and progressive activists settlements in the Khaldeh and Aramoun regions. Thirty women and children were killed at the entry of Damour.
The airport was closed after three shells hit the runways.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne record that the besiegers executed some twenty Damour residents on this day, a first massacre a week after the siege began on 9 January. Whether these are the deaths reported 'at the entry of Damour' is not established.

March 16, 1977wednesday
Kamal Joumblatt was assassinated
He was leaving Moukhtara when he and two other passengers were killed. An ambush was set up not far from an Arab Strike Force control post. This assassination aroused a huge wave of disapproval. A call for a strike was immediately issued. The country was in mourning. Chief of the Lebanese left wing, leader of the Druze community, author of several political books, coming from a famous family in the Chouf, Kamal Joumblatt was born in 1917 in Moukhtara, with essentially an eclectic spirit. After he graduated from the Law school in Saint Joseph University in Beirut, he went into politics very young. In 1946 he was elected for the first time Deputy of the Chouf in the Parliament and three years later he was appointed Minister of Economy and Agriculture. In 1949, he founded the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party (PSP). Three months before his assassination, he had given up politics.

\_this day in full the books also date it 17 March 1977 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Jumblatt was ambushed near a Syrian checkpoint of the Arab Deterrent Force; Fisk places it on the mountain road near Baaqlin. Most historians give 16 March 1977 (Traboulsi, de Clerck and Malsagne, the Confluences authors, and Hanf on one page); Hanf elsewhere and Ménargues give 17 March, which Ménargues ties to the burial. His son Walid took over, and Christians were killed in reprisal in Chouf villages. Hanf writes that most politicians, Muslims above all, took the murder as a warning against defying Syria openly, and that Jumblatt had attacked the Syrian presence in speech and print, in Lebanon and abroad.

September 16, 1977friday
15 cholera cases were reported in Lebanon.
The officials in the Health and Education departments recommended putting off the re-opening of schools to November 10.

\_this day in full \_on this day

January 16, 1979tuesday
The disappearance of the Imam Sadr was back on the news. Seven young Lebanese Shiite militiamen hijacked the MEA Boeing 720, in order to attract the world's attention on the sequestration of the Imam. The militants affirmed that General Kadhafi, who was vigorously opposed to the Palestinian settlement in Lebanon, detained Imam Moussa Sadr. The hijackers surrendered to the Lebanese justice at night.

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March 16, 1981monday
Israel retorted at the Lebanese decision to send the Army to the frontier region by bombarding the UNIFL. The United Nations Secretary General, Kurt Waldheim was outraged and requested an urgent Security Council meeting.

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\_what the books add

Fisk: after shells killed two Nigerian UNIFIL soldiers in March 1981, the force commander, General William Callaghan, blamed Israeli gunners rather than Haddad's militia.

March 16, 1982tuesday
The plot against foreign embassies continued. A large number of embassies closed their doors, while those that were still open were a regularly subjected to threats or assaults.

\_this day in full the books also date it 4 September 1981 \_on this day

\_what the books add

The 117 foreign diplomatic staff killed in the war included the ambassadors of France (4 September 1981), Iraq (15 December 1981) and Algeria (13 January 1982).

September 16, 1982thursday
The Israelis' attacks against West Beirut continued, killing 31 persons and injuring 121 others. Major damages were also reported.

\_this day in full the books also date it 14 September 1982, 15 September 1982 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Israeli troops entered West Beirut at 5 a.m. on 15 September, the morning after Bashir Gemayel's death, against the commitments given through Philip Habib; Lebanese leftist militias fought them in parts of the city.

February 16, 1983wednesday
A car bomb exploded in Antelias not far from a Phalange office. Once again, the civilians paid the price of this ferocity.

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March 16, 1983wednesday
14 American Marines and Italian bersaglieri were wounded by three attacks perpetrated in less than 12 hours. Washington and Rome declared however that the Multinational Force would continue its mission. The Lebanese Army launched a clean up operation in the Southern suburbs.

\_this day in full the books also date it 17 March 1983 \_on this day

\_what the books add

A caller claimed the attacks for 'Islamic Jihad', then an unknown name; the same voice later claimed the embassy bombing (Fisk). He counts ten Italians, two critically, and five US Marines wounded within 48 hours. De Clerck and Malsagne date these first Islamic Jihad attacks to 17 March.

December 16, 1983friday
The Beirut International Airport, closed since November 30, was reopened to air traffic.

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January 16, 1984monday
Saad Haddad, commander of the Army of Free Lebanon, died from a generalized cancer. He was 47 years old and was buried in his birthplace, Marjeyoun.

\_this day in full the books also date it 13 January 1984 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Sources disagree on the date of Saad Haddad's death: Ménargues gives 13 January 1984; Hanf and Fisk give January 1984; de Clerck and Malsagne give December 1983. No supplied book gives 16 January. Ménargues also gives his birth year as 1937 and his origin as Marjayoun, consistent with the age stated here.

January 16, 1984monday
Blind bombardments killed 16 persons and wounded 75 others in Beirut. Anxiety and fear prevailed. Schools and hospitals received their daily lot of bombs, amid international indifference. Panic reached the Lebanese stock exchange market where the Dollar amounted almost for six Lebanese Pounds.

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September 16, 1984sunday
The fraud scandal at the baccalaureate exams repeated itself. The exams were cancelled in eight centers in West Beirut.

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March 16, 1985saturday
The regional director of the Associated Press, Terry Anderson, was kidnapped in West Beirut. Many other US and British nationals had already been kidnapped. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for these acts.

\_this day in full the books also date it 8 January 1985, 17 March 1985 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Terry Anderson was the AP's Beirut bureau chief. He was seized near the Ain Mreisseh mosque and held for more than six years. Two Britons had been kidnapped in the two days before him; Islamic Jihad claimed all three on 17 March.

September 16, 1985monday
In Tripoli, ten soldiers from the Lebanese Army were killed and 35 others wounded by shells that fell on the Bahjat Ghanem barracks.

\_this day in full the books also date it 7 October 1985 \_on this day

\_what the books add

On 7 October, Hanf writes, 20,000 Syrian soldiers entered Tripoli, after pro-Syrian groups had in September 1985 attacked the Tawheed movement then holding the city; some 250,000 civilians fled.

January 16, 1986thursday
Confrontations started on the Northern Metn front. The shells kept falling intermittently during several months on Bickfaya, the Metn and the Kesrouan. The population in these regions was living in the fear of car bombs and blind bombardments.

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Hanf dates the main offensive, by SSNP fighters with Syrian support toward Bikfaya (at Douar and on the Baskinta-Bikfaya road), to the second half of February; it was stopped by the Lebanese army.

February 16, 1989thursday
An agreement on military disengagement is concluded between the Army and the L.F., within in a four-party committee.

\_this day in full the books also date it 17 February 1989 \_on this day

\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne have a truce under the Maronite Patriarch's patronage from 17 February. Hanf says Aoun accepted a ceasefire once the militia agreed to hand over Dock Five of the port and the Bourbara checkpoint.