De Clerck and Malsagne date the start of fighting in central Beirut to the night of 17-18 September 1975; Hanf and Traboulsi hold the Kataeb responsible for shelling the old souks. A cease-fire and the setting-up of the National Dialogue Committee followed.

David Dodge was the acting president of AUB. Two gunmen in a car seized him on the campus; he was held for a year, taken to Iran, and released with Syrian help (Fisk).

Israel's announcement on 20 July of an early pull-out from the Chouf mountains, made while Gemayel was in Washington, alarmed Western ambassadors in Beirut (Fisk).

From 19 September the destroyer John Rodgers, then the cruiser Virginia, shelled Druze positions at Souk el-Gharb. Washington cited US personnel's safety; Fisk and Hanf see entry into the civil war. Only the frigate Bowen had fired before, on 8 September, at a Druze battery hitting the Marine compound.

Picard puts the toll of the December 1986 Syrian bombardment of Tripoli at more than 100 dead.

Hanf: Omar Karami was asked on 20 December 1990 to form a government after Hoss quit on the 19th; Hrawi had settled its make-up with the Syrians in Damascus on 15 December, excluding Hoss and Speaker Husseini.