lebanese war
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1975/1990
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116 news for the 4th, 20th, 31st of every month

with the books

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May 20, 1975tuesday
Five people were killed and 24 were wounded in Dekwaneh
Violent confrontations opposed Palestinians from the Tell El Zaatar camp and Phalange Party members. Businesses were closed in protest against the lack of security.

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August 31, 1975sunday
Despite the latest events, Demis Roussos sang in Beirut and put some balm on the hearts of the Lebanese people.

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October 4, 1975saturday
Interior Security Forces held in check a land attack against the Beirut International Airport where 4 armed men tried to kidnap an airplane in order to go to Cairo.

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January 20, 1976tuesday
Damour massacre
Avenging the massacre of Karantina by Christian forces 2 days before, Palestinians and leftist Muslims attacked the Christian city of Damour, located about 20 kilometers south of Beirut, and murdered 350 civilians.

\_this day in full the books also date it 9 January 1976, 16 January 1976, 19 January 1976, 22 January 1976, 24 January 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

The siege of Damour had begun on 9 January, before the fall of Karantina; the main massacre began on 20 January (Hanf, Ménargues, Fisk, de Clerck and Malsagne; Traboulsi gives 22 or 24 January). Jiyeh fell the same day. The attackers were mainly PLA, Saiqa and Fatah units, with Lebanese leftist parties. Estimates of the dead range from about 150 bodies found plus 200 missing (Fisk) and 300-584 (de Clerck and Malsagne) to about 900 (Ménargues); some 5,000 people fled by land and sea.

May 4, 1976tuesday
Air France suspended its flights. It was the last foreign airline that was still flying to Lebanon.

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September 4, 1976saturday
Bleeding continued in the ports. Massive emigration went on in the same intensity. Hundreds of families flew every day by sea escaping from hell.

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Historians disagree on 1976: Haugbolle ranks it among the war's largest emigration waves, while de Clerck and Malsagne see many returning that year after nearly 400,000 Lebanese had left by 1975. Haugbolle notes that no official figures exist.

November 20, 1976saturday
The third phase of the peace plan started. 250 tanks and 11 battalions entered Zghorta, Ehden, Tripoli and the Koura. In South Lebanon, the 'Green Helmets' took position in Saïda, and Zahrani. The Arab Dissuasion Force was not able to enter Tyr, Nabatyeh, Marjeyoun, and Masnaa because of the Israeli opposition to any Arab military presence beyond its famous 'red line'.

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\_what the books add

Israel, Hanf notes, would accept no Arab troops south of the 'red line', Syrian ones least of all. When a Syrian unit entered Nabatiyeh in January 1977, an Israeli protest got it withdrawn and the Palestinians kept the town.

December 4, 1976saturday
A violent explosion hit the district of Mousseytbeh, where a bomb exploded next to Kamal Joumblatt's house, killing 4 persons and seriously injuring 20 others.

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February 4, 1977friday
The Government promulgated a decree concerning wartime conflicts between owners and renters.
The decree stipulated mainly that rent contracts remained operative, while backlogs will be staggered on 18 months with no interest for all rents under 5,000 Lebanese Pounds. As to destroyed properties, there were three possibilities: reconstruct, compensate the renters, or give them shares.

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June 4, 1977saturday
The election of Miss Lebanon was organized at the Santa Teresa in Maameltein.

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September 20, 1977tuesday
While bombardments and fights were taking place along the border since September 16, Radio Israel announced that Israel had sent a warning to Syria, indicating that no Syrian troop movement will be tolerated in Southern Lebanon.

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

\_what the books add

Robert Fisk, who reported from the area, saw Israeli tanks on Lebanese soil near Ibl al-Saqi and Israeli shelling of Christian villages such as Rachaya al-Fukhar, where Palestinian guerrillas had dug in.

January 20, 1978friday
A new armament and US equipment shipment sent to the Lebanese Army and the Internal Security Forces arrived at the Port of Beirut. It included a hundred armored vehicles and cistern trucks.

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May 31, 1978wednesday
A Sarkis-Assad summit was held in Lattaquieh. They discussed the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon, the military cooperation between the two countries, and the difficulties encountered in the pacification process in Lebanon.

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June 4, 1978sunday
A 19 years old Lebanese pianist, Abdel Rahman El Bacha, won the longest and toughest international contest: the Queen Elisabeth Music Prize.

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July 31, 1978monday
Lebanese Army units were dispatched to South Lebanon.
They remained there until the end of the year. Christian militias supported by Israel in the South stopped their advance.

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\_what the books add

Hanf writes that Major Haddad's forces fired at Kaukaba on the units sent south in early August, men of the 'vanguard' Syria trusted, and drove them into retreat. Haddad later rebelled openly against the army command, and Israel took over paying his men.

October 4, 1978wednesday
The bombardments reached Bikfaya and Beit-Mery while in East Beirut there was a shortage of food and medications. The Security Council called for the urgent ending of the combats.

\_this day in full the books also date it 6 October 1978 \_on this day

\_what the books add

According to de Clerck and Malsagne, the Security Council's call for a ceasefire came on 6 October.

November 4, 1978saturday
While the situation improved on the ground, Damascus liberated Ahmed Khatib, previously chief of the Army of Arab Lebanon.

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December 20, 1978wednesday
Following a governmental reshuffling, General Victor Khoury became Minister of Defense, replacing Fouad Boutros.

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March 20, 1979tuesday
A car bomb containing explosives operated by remote control, parked next to the military council of the Phalange Party was found. This attack aimed at the chief of the Lebanese Forces, Bechir Gemayel.

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May 31, 1979thursday
At the meeting of the Security Council, Lebanon claimed the reinforcement of the UNIFL. Moreover, Beirut requested the condemnation of Israel and the re-activation of the Armistice Commission.

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June 4, 1979monday
Pierre Gemayel, Chief of the Phalange Party, escaped a killing attack in Nahr el Kalb.
The explosion slightly injured his head and killed one person and wounded about 10.

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August 20, 1979monday
A car bomb exploded prematurely in Achrafieh killing the two occupants of the vehicle. A disaster had just been avoided.

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August 31, 1979friday
On the occasion of the first anniversary of the disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr, a general strike paralyzed Beirut. For the first time Sheikh Mohammed Mehdi chamseddine accused the Libyans of his disappearance.

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

September 20, 1979thursday
Numerous typhoid cases were reported in Lebanon but there hasn't been any epidemic outbreak in the country.

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October 4, 1979thursday
A light earthquake shook the region of Saida without any victim.

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October 4, 1979thursday
The Minister of Foreign affairs, Fouad Boutros, called upon the United Nations to end Israeli aggressions in the South, to freeze the activities of the Fedayin, to reinforce the UNIFL, and to dissociate the Lebanese problem from the regional crisis.

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March 4, 1980tuesday
The mutilated body of Selim Laouzi was found in the forests of Aramoun ten days after his kidnapping.

\_this day in full the books also date it 5 March 1980 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Fisk reads the mutilation of al-Lawzi's body as a warning to the Lebanese press: the flesh of his writing hand had been removed, by knife or acid, and two shots fired into his neck from behind. A shepherd found him, half under snow, in the Aramoun woods on 5 March.

May 20, 1980tuesday
In a verbal message transmitted through the US ambassador John Gunther Dean, President Elias Sarkis urged the US President Carter to stop Lebanon's agony.

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May 31, 1980saturday
The Lebanese championship of athletics was held for the first time since 1975.

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July 4, 1980friday
Artillery duels and armed confrontations continued between the Phalange Party and the NLP in the regions of Wadi-Chahrour, Betchay, Bsous,Kfarchima, and their surroundings. 16 persons were killed and 20 others wounded. The next day, the Lebanese army took in charge the areas of Wadi-Chahrour, Betchay, Bsous, Kfarchima, Bsaba, and Bleibel in the Southern-Metn, ending the conflict between the Phalange Party and the NLP in the region.

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\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne list Wadi Chahrour and Kfarchima among the National Liberals' bases in Beirut's south-eastern suburbs and end the wave of clashes between Christian militias on 2 July 1980. Ménargues describes near-daily fighting in the second half of June. Bashir Gemayel settled the rivalry by force on 7 July.

July 20, 1980sunday
Takieddine Solh was asked, by the President of the Republic, to form a new Government of National Union.

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In Ménargues's account Damascus rejected Takieddine Solh, finding him too lukewarm about Lebanese–Syrian friendship, and offered three names instead, Selim Hoss's among them.

October 31, 1980friday
The Lebanese army evacuated Ain el Remmaneh and gathered on the Damascus road and on major Streets.

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De Clerck and Malsagne date Lebanese Forces control of East Beirut to this day; Ménargues dates the final takeover of Ain el-Remmaneh to late November. See the note on 27 October.

December 31, 1980wednesday
A Syrian-Israeli air fight took place in the Lebanese sky. Damascus admited that its two Migs were hit and that two Israeli airplanes were shot down. Tel-Aviv denied this information.

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January 31, 1981saturday
A violent storm hit Lebanon.
50 cars were totally stuck between Sofar and Mdeirej and their occupants spent the night in their vehicles. The Army was able to rescue 200 persons in the mountain.

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February 4, 1981wednesday
Four Lebanese militaries were killed in a helicopter accident. The Aircraft crashed on the hills of Sannine.

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March 20, 1981friday
The United Nations Security Council condemned Saad Haddad without mentioning Israel.

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April 4, 1981saturday
An intensive bombardment in Zahleh killed 20 and injured 100.

\_this day in full the books also date it 6 April 1981 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Ménargues dates a day of intensive shelling of Zahleh, with about twenty dead, to 6 April.

April 20, 1981monday
The situation was worsening in Lebanon. Violence unleashed in the South where artillery duels and air raids on Nabatyeh and Saida killed 16 and injured 33. Sporadic bombardments shred the silence in Zahleh. East Beirut was violently shelled and bombings spread to Nahr El Kalb causing five deaths and 32 wounded.

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July 4, 1981saturday
The Arab Foreign Affairs Ministers met in Beiteddine. However, no concrete measure was taken, it was a total impasse.

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\_what the books add

Ménargues lists the participants as Syrian foreign minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, the Arab League's representative and the Saudi and Kuwaiti ambassadors, Ali Chaër and Abdel Hamid Bouayajane. That day a general strike against the Syrian presence shut down the Christian regions.

September 4, 1981friday
The French ambassador, Louis Delamare, was cowardly assassinated 100 meters away from the Résidence des Pins.

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\_what the books add

The 59-year-old ambassador was shot in his locked car at about 1.55 p.m., some 60 metres from a Syrian checkpoint (Malsagne), while heading home near the Résidence des Pins. Malsagne blames a pro-Syrian Shiite commando; the next ambassador, Paul-Marc Henry, saw a botched kidnapping ordered by Iranian intelligence. France was then moving closer to the PLO.

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