lebanese war
chronology
1975/1990
\_by Phases
\_by Dates
\_Search

138 news for the 4th, 6th, 28th of every month

with the books

page 1 of 4 next

January 6, 1975monday
The army launched an attack in Tripoli
The army succeeded, after a tense day of occasional shootings, to invest and control the old town of Tripoli where many outlaws have been hiding for the past 6 months. Two civilians died, 12 were wounded, and 75 persons were arrested.

\_this day in full \_on this day

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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

December 6, 1975saturday
The assassination of four young Phalangists on the Fanar road provoked horrible killings in the streets of Beirut.
The capital was rapidly set ablaze. It was the apocalypse. Militias launched street fights resulting in tens of innocent victims. Violence was at its peek and nothing seemed to end this thirst for blood.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

The bodies of four young Kataeb members were found on 6 December 1975, while Pierre Gemayel was in Damascus; Muslims seized at makeshift checkpoints by the port were killed in reprisal. Accounts place the bodies in the Metn (Hanf), near Tal al-Za'tar (Haugbolle) or outside the electricity company offices (Fisk). De Clerck and Malsagne blame Joseph Saadeh, whose son was among the four. Only Fisk puts Bashir Gemayel in Damascus and cites Phalangist officers saying he ordered the reprisal. The Muslim dead number about 200 (Hanf, Traboulsi, de Clerck and Malsagne) or several dozen (Picard); Fisk gives at least 300 Muslims, and probably as many Christians, in the reprisals.

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

\_this day in full \_on this day

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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

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.

September 28, 1976tuesday
The Syrian forces and the Lebanese Forces launched an attack against the positions of the Palestinian Progressive forces in the mountain. This far-reaching attack aimed at dislodging the Common Forces from the crests they occupied in Sannine, Zaarour, Aintoura and Mtein. This assault was accompanied by an intensive bombing of Aley, the main Palestinian Progressive base in the mountain.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

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.

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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

January 6, 1977thursday
A particularly vigorous winter hit Lebanon. It snowed in Beirut, which was quite unusual. Temperature fell to 0 degree.

\_this day in full \_on this day

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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

February 28, 1977monday
A master plan for the souks of the old Beirut was submitted to the Council of Ministers. This project included the creation of a green front, an opening to the sea from the Saint George to Bahri, the construction of a port district around the first basin, the opening of avenues towards the sea, and the reconstruction of the souks.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

APUR, the Atelier parisien d'urbanisme, drew up this 1977 plan, the earliest of three reconstruction studies made during the war.

March 28, 1977monday
The Council of Ministers appointed Colonel Victor Khoury at the head of the army replacing General Hanna Said.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

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.

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

\_this day in full \_on this day

September 28, 1977wednesday
Demis Roussos was back to Lebanon to give a concert. 'I am glad to be in Lebanon especially after what happened', he declared.

\_this day in full \_on this day

January 6, 1978friday
The Begin Plan concerning the settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon made some noise.
The Lebanese reacted with firmness and indignation to the conspiracy initiated by foreign countries. According to Salim El Hoss, 'Every project expecting the settlement of Palestinians outside of their land is rejected.' The President of the Republic also rejected any project stipulating the permanent settlement of Palestinians in Lebanon. 'Our country should determine itself what it is able to offer. It is unfair to solve the Palestinian question by creating a Lebanese problem. We will make every effort to let our right prevail', he said.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf notes that in December 1977 Menachem Begin, Israel's prime minister, had excluded any return of the Palestinian refugees in neighbouring countries.

April 28, 1978friday
A building collapsed on refugees from South Beirut causing tens of victims.

\_this day in full \_on this day

May 6, 1978saturday
Several civil victims were reported during a violent bombardment of Ain el Remmanneh. As usual, there were contradictory versions of the incident.

\_this day in full \_on this day

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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

June 6, 1978tuesday
The Lebanese Front stiffened its position.
It considered that the Palestinian Resistance did not have its place in Lebanon anymore. The Front proclaimed that all the agreements with the PLO were null and void. The Front hoped that the Lebanese army replaces the primarily Syrian Arab Strike Force. President Sarkis was determined to dispatch the army to the South.

\_this day in full \_on this day

June 28, 1978wednesday
A massacre of a unique atrocity was perpetrated in the North of the Bekaa region.
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

\_what the books add

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.

July 28, 1978friday
US nationals were evacuated and this was worrying for the Lebanese population.

\_this day in full \_on this day

August 28, 1978monday
A Syrian-Israeli war in Lebanon seemed likely to happen, but the US intervened to moderate the two countries.

\_this day in full \_on this day

September 28, 1978thursday
It is the famous ' Black Thursday ' where hundreds of shells hit Achrafieh in a murderous frenzy that did not spare anyone. The Arab Strike Force and the Lebanese Front accused each other of being responsible of this nightmare, while women, children and elderly persons were dying.

\_this day in full \_on this day

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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

January 6, 1979saturday
President Elias Sarkis re-affirmed the rejection of the implantation. The chief of State requested the reinforcement for the UNIFL

\_this day in full \_on this day

February 6, 1979tuesday
One dead and 10 injured were reported on the 'Ring of death' under sniper shots.

\_this day in full \_on this day

February 28, 1979wednesday
Saudi troops decided to withdraw from the Arabic Strike Force. The Lebanese tried to dissuade them.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

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.

April 6, 1979friday
A general strike to protest against the insufficient salary increase paralyzed the country. The syndicates granted a delay of 3 months to the government.

\_this day in full \_on this day

May 6, 1979sunday
The Israeli aviation, aiming at a Palestinian target, killed five innocents and injured 15 others in a wedding ceremony in the Akkar. All the victims were Lebanese with, among them, several kids.

\_this day in full \_on this day

May 28, 1979monday
100,000 civilians flew towards Saida, Zahrani, the Chouf and Beirut due to the Israeli bombardments.

\_this day in full \_on this day

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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

June 28, 1979thursday
The Arab Strike Force mandate was renewed for 6 months.

\_this day in full \_on this day

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

\_this day in full \_on this day

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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

October 28, 1979sunday
Israel stiffened its position.
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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

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.

March 6, 1980thursday
Units from the Arab Strike Force positioned in the Sin el Fil- Dekouaneh-Mekalles region started to gather in order to withdraw towards Jamhour-Aley. The total withdrawal should be executed by Saturday night and the Lebanese army would replace the Syrian soldiers.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf: clashes among the Christian militias grew more frequent after the partial Syrian withdrawal, which removed Syrian checkpoints on the roads into East Beirut and between Achrafieh and the Christian suburbs and gave the militias one unbroken territory for the first time since 1976.

May 28, 1980wednesday
200 persons were poisoned in Tyr after drinking polluted water.

\_this day in full \_on this day

June 6, 1980friday
Selim el Hoss resigned from office. President Sarkis accepted his resignation on June 16.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

Ménargues dates the resignation to March 1980, after repeated deadlock between Hoss and Sarkis over the army; Hoss stayed on as caretaker until Shafiq Wazzan's appointment in late October.

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.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_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.

page 1 of 4 next