lebanese war
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1975/1990
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143 news for the 5th, 16th, 24th of every month

with the books

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February 5, 1975wednesday
The Arab Defense Committee gathered in Cairo, voted 90 million dollars for the defense of Lebanon.

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May 16, 1975friday
The Solh Cabinet resigned due to pressures against its members.

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In a heated sitting of parliament Rashid al-Solh resigned, blaming the Kataeb for the fighting. His refusal to deploy the army had led the Kataeb ministers to leave the cabinet, and other Christian ministers had followed them.

August 5, 1975tuesday
Israel launched air, land and sea attacks against Tyr, killing 18 persons and injuring 29.

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November 16, 1975sunday
President Sleiman Frangieh and Prime Minister Rachid Karameh studied the political reform and the secularization of public service.
The Prime Minister presented a plan to redress the economy and curb unemployment. He claimed religious equity in the parliamentary representation and a complete secularization of public service. The government decided to create a shock squad in charge of reestablishing security in the country.

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January 5, 1976monday
After a delay of three months, the American University of Beirut inaugurated its academic year 1975-1976.

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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.

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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.

May 16, 1976sunday
The Lebanese press was in mourning. A sniper's bullet killed Edouard Saab, the chief editor of L'Orient-Le-Jour.

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De Clerck and Malsagne note that Edouard Saab was Le Monde's correspondent too; a sniper shot him dead while he crossed the demarcation line.

June 16, 1976wednesday
The US ambassador in Lebanon, Francis Meloy, the US economic advisor, Robert Waring, and the driver of the US embassy were assassinated after being kidnapped. They were about to cross the borderline between West and East Beirut.

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Fisk reports that the bodies of Ambassador Francis Meloy, his economic counsellor Robert Waring and their Lebanese driver, abducted near the Museum crossing, were found that evening at Ramlet al-Baida, and that Arafat, once sure of the three Palestinians responsible, sent them to Tyre. De Clerck and Malsagne judge that the murders ended American efforts at a settlement through the Lebanese parties.

July 5, 1976monday
The PLO and their allies launched a massive offensive against the Kura and the Christian town of Chekka north of Beirut.

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Hanf writes that once Jisr al-Pasha fell on 1 July the Palestinians struck in the north, taking coastal Chekka from Tripoli by way of the Koura, with massacres, looting and arson. A Lebanese Front counter-attack with army tanks reached Tripoli's outskirts.

November 16, 1976tuesday
According to Ghassan Tueni, who was in Geneva asking for help from international organizations, 'In 18 months, the Lebanese war killed 60,000 persons, injured 200 000 others, and made 1.7 million homeless persons.'

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Later estimates for the 'two-year war' are below the figures quoted here. Published death tolls, de Clerck and Malsagne note, run from 15,000 to 40,000, and the displaced numbered at least 200,000. In The Times of 16 November 1976 Fisk reported almost 40,000 dead.

January 24, 1977monday
The Government created an economic and social orientation body, called the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR).

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Its unprecedented powers spanned planning, funding and running reconstruction. It replaced the Planning Ministry in 1977; Picard calls it the economy's 'superministry'.

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

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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.

April 5, 1977tuesday
The officials were satisfied with the ongoing excavations in the heart of the city where the most damaged sectors were located, for they exhumed valuable Phoenician, Roman and Byzantine vestiges.

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April 16, 1977saturday
The Cairo agreement will be applied progressively. The worried Lebanese have been waiting for a long time for this agreement to be implemented.

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July 24, 1977sunday
340 tourists made a brief stopover in Beirut. The Sol Phryne, a boat achieving a Mediterranean cruise, made a stopover in Beirut and its 340 passengers visited the capital for a few hours.

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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.

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November 5, 1977saturday
An odious murder was committed against Abdel-Hamid Ahdab. He was a strong defender of an inter-Lebanese dialogue in favor of an absolute allegiance to the country. The powerful explosion placed in Ahdab's residence killed his daughter and seriously injured him and his spouse. This criminal act was perpetrated against democracy, freedom of speech and reconciliation between the Lebanese.

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January 24, 1978tuesday
The Lebanese Front was alarmed : armaments were unloaded in Tyr.

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May 24, 1978wednesday
The PLO committed, in an official press release, to stop all military activities in South Lebanon and facilitate the UNIFL's task, in order to reestablish the Lebanese sovereignty in this region.

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June 5, 1978monday
Ghassan Tueini proposed, at the UN General Assembly, an 'international neutrality to protect Lebanon, because this country has no longer any other future besides explosion or invasion'. A UN force would take in charge the protection of the territory, while the army would devote its efforts to internal security and reconstruction.

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August 24, 1978thursday
The situation deteriorated suddenly in the North.
Eight persons were killed and 10 others wounded in an ambush between the Cazas of Koura and Batroun. The situation worsened on August 25. The Arab Strike Force launched a raking operation. Fights resulted in 20 deaths and did not end until August 26. The Arab Strike Force now controls all the region of Batroun while the Phalangists are settled in Jbeil.

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November 16, 1978thursday
According to a study done by the national federation of syndicates, the cost of living had increased by 90% in four years.

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December 5, 1978tuesday
The Arab tripartite committee including Saudi and Kuwaiti ambassadors and a Syrian general, met in Baabda in presence of the chief of State. The committee excluded any immediate resort to the army.

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January 5, 1979friday
Lebanon entered a complacency phase.
All sides seemed decided to wait for important regional developments to unfold in order to re-evaluate the situation and define the course of action. The situation was very tense in the South where the Israelis were shelling the Hasbaya region.

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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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February 5, 1979monday
New identity cards bearing no mention of religion, were also due to be released soon.

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March 24, 1979saturday
While Hoss was claiming the revision of the taking over operation, arguing that there are not enough soldiers nor material, combats were raging in the Batroun region between the Phalange Party and the Marada, followers of President Frangieh.

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May 16, 1979wednesday
The Hoss cabinet resigned.

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June 16, 1979saturday
After murderous combats, the Lebanese authorities decided to send the army to Ain el Remmane at the beginning of the week.

\_this day in full the books also date it 12 May 1979, 18 June 1979 \_on this day

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Bashir Gemayel's men fought a bloody battle with army units sent, at Pierre Gemayel's and Camille Chamoun's request, to separate the Kataeb and National Liberal militias, at war since 12 May. De Clerck and Malsagne call it the first serious armed clash between the army and a Lebanese militia, dating it once to 14 June and once to 18 June.

July 16, 1979monday
Two months after the resignation of the Hoss Cabinet formed at the end of the 75-76 war, Selim El Hoss announced the formation of his second Cabinet. The ministerial team included:
Selim El Hoss: Prime Minister - Fouad Boutros: Vice-president of the Council and Minister of Foreign affairs - Charles Helou: Minister of State - Bahige Takieddine: Minister of Interior and Tourism - Joseph Skaff: Minister of Defense and Agriculture - Anouar Sabbah: Minister of Resources and Industry - Ali El Khalil: Minister of Finance - Nazem Kadri: Minister of Social Affairs - Boutros Harb: Minister of Education and Public Works - Talal Merhabi: Minister of Health and Economy - Youssef Germanos: Minister of Justice and Information

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August 16, 1979thursday
The Lebanese weightlifter Mohammed Traboulsi won several gold medals during the 11th Asian championship of weightlifting that was taking place in Tokyo.

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November 16, 1979friday
The dollar registered its highest level in Beirut, reaching 347 Lebanese Pounds, something that never happened before.

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February 5, 1980tuesday
Mgr Elias Audeh was elected the Greek Orthodox Metropolite of Beirut.

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February 24, 1980sunday
Selim Laouzi, owner of the Hawadess, a local newspaper, was kidnapped on the Beirut International Airport road. The kidnapping of this eminent figure of the Lebanese press provoked strong emotions in the political environment and the Editors Syndicate decided to call for a strike.

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Officially no killer was named, but al-Lawzi's murder was widely blamed on his criticism of Syrian rule (Fisk; Picard). Fisk: he was seized near a Syrian army checkpoint heading for the airport.

March 5, 1980wednesday
In a message addressed to the Nation, the President of the Republic proclaimed the State's Arab and internal options. He rejected the Camp David agreements, and underlined the coordination between Lebanon and Syria wile respecting the sovereignty of both countries. Furthermore, he refused the idea of creating mini-states and reassured his attachment to freedom.

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Probably the text Picard lists as President Sarkis's 'Fourteen Points' (March 1980), one of the drafts that fed into the Taif Accord. Traboulsi notes that in that same month an American spokesman called on Lebanon to sign up to the Camp David accords.

March 5, 1980wednesday
Seven Zghortiotes were released in exchange of eleven Phalangists. The exchange of hostages took place after 5 months of detention.

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April 16, 1980wednesday
The conflict between Amal and the Iraqi Baas worsened.
Violent fights raged in the Southern suburbs of Beirut claiming 40 victims. The Iraqi and the Iranian embassies were attacked. The Amal organization, founded by Imam Moussa Sadr who disappeared in 1978, accused the Iraqi agents of ignoring the cease-fire.

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Hanf sees the Iran–Iraq war of September 1980 as already being fought earlier in Beirut's suburbs: Amal and the Iraqi-backed Arab Liberation Front clashed there despite repeated ceasefires, and the fighting spread south, where a dozen villages were contested until mid-1982. De Clerck and Malsagne list the Iraqi Baath among Amal's adversaries.

April 24, 1980thursday
The Security Council adopted a resolution condemning the Israeli military intervention in Lebanon and the de facto alliance between Israel and Saad Haddad's militia. Washington suggested the creation of a special commission in charge of finding a final settlement in South Lebanon.

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August 5, 1980tuesday
A Shiite Ulema, Sheikh Ali Badreddine, was found dead in the region of Zahrani.

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August 24, 1980sunday
5 persons were killed and 35 others wounded by a car bomb explosion in front of a coffee shop in Reyfoun.

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