lebanese war
chronology
1975/1990
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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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

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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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 6, 1980sunday
Violent confrontations opposed in Ain Mreisse the Mourabitoun and the Arab Socialist Union. 3 persons died and 16 others were wounded.

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March 6, 1981friday
A TNT load exploded in Zahleh inside a travel agency, killing three persons and injuring 28 others.

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January 6, 1982wednesday
President Elias Sarkis declared: 'The world watches the Lebanese agony with indifference.'

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March 6, 1982saturday
Another car bomb exploded in Jnah killing 6 persons and injuring 17 others.

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\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne, drawing on Ronen Bergman, attribute to Ariel Sharon a series of car bombings from October 1981, carried out under the name 'Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners' and aimed chiefly at Palestinians, to provoke retaliation that could justify an invasion. They list no individual attacks, so this bombing cannot be matched to their account.

June 6, 1982sunday
The Israelis invaded the South along three axes.
The Security Council adopted immediately a resolution requesting the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Israeli forces up to the internationally recognized borderlines. However, this did not stop Israel from reaching Saida and Tyr.

\_this day in full the books also date it 5 June 1982 \_on this day

\_what the books add

The invasion, called 'Operation Peace for Galilee', began on Sunday 6 June: Israeli commandos crossed the border at 1.30 a.m. to attack Beaufort castle (Ménargues), and up to 25,000 troops moved along the coast, through Tibnin and across the eastern sector (Fisk). The government declared a limited aim of a 40-kilometre zone, but Defence Minister Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff Rafael Eitan kept advancing (Hanf). One overview in de Clerck and Malsagne and Picard's chronology give 5 June.

July 6, 1982tuesday
The US President, Ronald Reagan, decided to send American troops to Lebanon in order to reestablish peace and evacuate the Fedayin.

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August 6, 1982friday
The Accra building occupied by refugees collapsed during an Israeli air raid on Beirut, provoking the death of 250 persons.

\_this day in full the books also date it 5 August 1982 \_on this day

\_what the books add

In rue Aussi near Sanayeh park a car bomb exploded among rescuers minutes after Israeli bombs levelled two five-storey blocks, says Robert Fisk's dispatch datelined West Beirut, 5 August; a neighbour put over 100 people, mostly squatters from the camps and the south, beneath the rubble. Arafat had reportedly met there just before.

January 6, 1983thursday
The Israeli forces pursued their combing operations in the sectors of Laylaki, Kfarchima and Choueifat. The 'Marines' sent a severe warning to the Israeli army.

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Robert Fisk recounts that Defence Secretary Weinberger proposed an award for Charles Johnson, a Marine captain who in January 1983 stopped an Israeli tank unit entering the Marine sector off the old Sidon road by climbing onto the lead tank and pointing his pistol at its commander.

April 6, 1983wednesday
The government decided to raise the salaries in the private sector: 10% up to 2500 LP, 9% raging from 2501 to 4000 LP, and 4% above 4000 LP.

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November 6, 1983sunday
The situation was dramatic in Tripoli. Inter-Palestinian fights claimed 500 deaths and 875 injured.

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The fighting set Fatah dissidents under Abu Musa, Syrian artillery and pro-Syrian Lebanese parties against Arafat's loyalists and the Sunni Tawhid militia. Hanf writes that in early November it took on the character of a Sunni-Alawite civil war, and that Tawhid fighters killed hundreds of communists.

February 6, 1984monday
In a matter of hours, Amal took control over West Beirut. The capital was heavily bombed, while the Army gave up the control of the Western sector of the Capital to Amal and to the Islamic militias.

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The books describe a joint Amal and PSP (Druze) offensive, not Amal alone; the mainly Shi'i Sixth Brigade went over to Amal. Hanf dates the last Christian soldiers' withdrawal to the east, and so the completed division, to 7 February. De Clerck and Malsagne record the uprising's name, 'the 6 February movement'. About 50,000 Christians moved east, almost half the public radio's 400 staff left their posts, and Télé-Liban split. A later Sunni militia took its name from the date (Hanf).

September 6, 1984thursday
At the United Nations, the United States vetoed a Lebanese draft resolution submitted to the Security Council. This draft resolution requested from Israel, the 'occupying force', to respect civil rights in South Lebanon.

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January 6, 1985sunday
The 12th round of the Israeli-Lebanese negotiations in Nakoura started.

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Picard dates the end of President Gemayel's talks with Israel to January 1985.

March 6, 1985wednesday
The Lebanese Pound reached a new record, with over a 19 Pounds drop in value. The pound had lost half its value compared to the dollar since the beginning of the year.

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See the note on 4 February: Hanf's yearly table puts the pound at 16 to the dollar for 1985.

June 6, 1985thursday
Israel officially completed its withdrawal from South Lebanon. Nevertheless, several Israeli soldiers continued to occupy the Security Zone. In reality, the last Israeli armored vehicle left Lebanon on June 10 after an accident in which Israel lost 654 deaths and 3890 injured, and four disappeared soldiers.

\_this day in full the books also date it 17 February 1985, 28 December 1985 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Israeli losses: de Clerck and Malsagne count 670 dead and nearly 3,000 wounded between June 1982 and June 1985 (and 721 dead and 3,890 wounded for the whole war); Traboulsi writes of some 500 dead. Israel kept a 'security zone' policed with Lahad's South Lebanon Army.

August 6, 1985tuesday
The Front of National Unity, a coalition of West Beirut parties, created a month earlier in Damascus, was born.

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\_what the books add

For Picard, the National Union Front, like the 1983 National Salvation Front, had no common ground beyond hostility to Christian leadership and reliance on Syria.

January 6, 1987tuesday
The Cassir decrees caused a fast increase in the price of fuel. Starting this day, 20 liters of gas were sold at 190 LBP, while the jar of butane was sold at 100 LBP.

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February 6, 1987friday
The Lebanese Pound recorded a historic decline compared to the dollar which had almost reached the 100 LBP threshold. This fall worried the population.

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\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne call 1987's currency crisis the gravest since independence, the pound losing up to 90 percent of its value; on Banque du Liban figures (Hanf), it fell from about 35 to the dollar in 1986 to some 520.

March 6, 1987friday
A decision that appeared anachronistic in a country dominated by insecurity was taken: motorcycles were prohibited in West Beirut. This decision was motivated by the need to strengthen security in the region.

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July 6, 1987monday
The high depreciation of the Lebanese Pound breks, in the beginning of the week, all historical drop records and provokes panic on the exchange market. The national currency breaks the plateau of 162 LBP for 1 American Dollar.

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Picard records an eightfold price rise and a thirtyfold fall of the pound against the dollar from summer 1984 to summer 1987.

October 6, 1987tuesday
A wild race starts between the Preliminary Reajustment of Salaries and an obvious inflation. The Lebanese, despite a minimum salary raised to 8.500 LBP, already seem to be paying an increase they haven't perceived yet.

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April 6, 1988wednesday
Following combats between Amal and Hezbollah, Nabatiyeh falls in the hands of Amal militiamen.

\_this day in full the books also date it 5 April 1988, 28 November 1988 \_on this day

\_what the books add

The books date the start of the Amal-Hezbollah fighting in the south to 5 April 1988 (de Clerck); Picard's chronology gives 28 November 1988, which seems to describe the later round in Beirut.

February 6, 1989monday
After 2 months of interruption, the Red Cross International Committee decides to resume its activities in Lebanon.

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March 6, 1989monday
Yarzeh reactivated 'The Maritime Operations Room:' instructed to watch the navigation movement in the Lebanese waters and to prevent boats from entering the illegal harbours of the country. Sami Khatib (chief commander of the army in the Western sector) closed the access to the port in retort to what was considered a blockade.

\_this day in full the books also date it 3 March 1989 \_on this day

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Hanf puts Aoun's order to blockade Khalde, Jiyeh and Ouzai, the ports held by the PSP and Amal, on 3 March; de Clerck and Malsagne place the closure of the illegal ports on 6 March. Syria had warned Aoun against acting beyond 'his' area. Beirut and Jounieh harbours and the airport then all shut, Syrian and PSP guns shelling the first two, the army the third.

September 6, 1989wednesday
2000 angry demonstrators have besieged the American Embassy. Twenty-four hours later, 30 American diplomats, including the Ambassador John Mc Carthy, leave Lebanon.

\_this day in full the books also date it 16 November 1989 \_on this day

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According to Hanf and Fisk, the embassy closed after demonstrations by Aoun's supporters. A first youth protest at the embassy, against Western 'silence', took place in April 1989.

September 6, 1990thursday
7 deaths due to cholera are reported in Northern Lebanon.

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