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September 30, 1985monday
Three diplomats from the Soviet embassy and the chancellery's doctor were kidnapped in West Beirut. One of them was killed later, while the three others were released on October 30. Twelve Western nationals remained held hostages by Islamist organizations.
\_this day in full the books also date it 1 October 1985 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Fisk dates it 1 October 1985, de Clerck and Malsagne September. Arkady Katkov was killed. Fisk thinks Sunni fundamentalists wanted Moscow to make Syria halt its Tripoli offensive against Tawheed. The others' release is credited probably to the KGB and Syria by de Clerck and Malsagne, to Syrian mediation by Hanf.
December 3, 1985tuesday
For the first time since the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, the Israeli Army carried out an important military operation outside the Security Zone. A base belonging to Ahmed Jibril's Popular Palestinian Liberation Front was destroyed in the Region of Rachaya El Wadi.
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December 11, 1985wednesday
A new security plan was executed in West Beirut. The army and the Internal Security Forces were controlling the public order, with the help of the Amal-PSP military police.
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December 28, 1985saturday
The Lebanese Forces, the PSP and Amal signed an agreement in Damascus, putting an end to the Lebanese war.
The year ended with some hope for the Lebanese, following the signature of the tripartite agreement, while the economy was agonizing and hundreds of Lebanese and foreign hostages were living in horrifying daily conditions.
\_this day in full the books also date it 12 March 1985 \_on this day
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Signed in Damascus by Elie Hobeika (Lebanese Forces), Nabih Berri (Amal) and Walid Jumblatt (PSP) under Syrian sponsorship. It provided for Christian-Muslim parity during a transition towards the end of political sectarianism, a stronger prime minister and cabinet, a senate, and 'strategic complementarity' with Syria. It did not end the war: President Gemayel refused it and, in January 1986, Samir Geagea's forces drove Hobeika out of East Beirut. Its provisions were largely taken up in the Taif Agreement of 1989.
February 1, 1986saturday
A delegation from the Union of Independent Maronite Deputies visited Damascus in an effort to reestablish the dialogue between the Christians and Syria.
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February 12, 1986wednesday
A bomb exploded in Ain El Remmaneh next to the entrance of a building where a Phalange Party office was located. Two persons lost their lives and 17 others were injured.
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February 18, 1986tuesday
President Gemayel met French President Miterrand and Pope John Paul II in the Vatican. He also met King Hassan II of Morocco.
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February 24, 1986monday
Islamists killed a communist leader, Souheil Tawileh, in Mazraa. Four days earlier, another communist leader, Khalil Nous, was assassinated. Meanwhile, terrorist-killing attempts continued in the Eastern regions. A car bomb exploded on the Salomeh intersection, causing 4 dead and 16 injured.
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Picard places the wave of killings of Communist and pro-Iraqi Baath leaders in January 1986.
July 3, 1986thursday
The Lebanese General Confederation of Workers called for a strike to protest against the increase in prices.
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The labour confederation's 1986 strikes began a run of ever more political protests against the war (Hanf, de Clerck and Malsagne, Traboulsi).
July 4, 1986friday
200 Commandos of the special Syrian forces helped the Lebanese Army and the Internal Security Forces to maintain security in Beirut.
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July 14, 1986monday
The Israeli aviation launched a raid on Baissour, Aitate, and Chemlane. The target was PSP, PFLP, and DFLP positions; 5 persons died and 11 were injured in the operation.
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July 19, 1986saturday
A killing attempt was perpetrated against a bus transporting AUB students and employees from West to East Beirut. Four dead including three students and five wounded including two doctors were reported. This massacre constituted a challenge to the pacification plan.
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July 28, 1986monday
A bomb set in a Mercedes car exploded in Ain El Remmaneh killing 31 persons and injuring 128 others. How long will innocents of all religions be paying the price of a war that had lasted for too long?
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July 29, 1986tuesday
Death hit this time in Barbir. 22 dead and 163 wounded victims were reported. The helplessness of the Lebanese was pitiful.
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September 2, 1986tuesday
The first meeting of the Dialog Committee was held at the Beirut racecourse. The ten members of the government met for the first time since November 1985. The Ministers decided to elaborate a new National Pact.
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The meetings produced no agreement (Hanf).
September 4, 1986thursday
The war against Westerners had new targets now. It was the turn of UNIFL soldiers to be aggressed. Three French Blue Helmets were killed in Jouaya in South Lebanon. The UN Security Council called for urgent security measures in favor of the UNIFL.
\_this day in full the books also date it 23 September 1986 \_on this day
September 10, 1986wednesday
The Islamic Jihad kidnapped Frank Reed, director of the Lebanese International College and Victor Kanho, governor of the Lion's Club in Lebanon and Jordan.
\_this day in full the books also date it 9 September 1986 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Fisk dates Frank Reed's kidnapping to 9 September.
September 12, 1986friday
Another US national, James Cicippio was kidnapped on the AUB campus, therefore raising the number of Americans kidnapped to 6.
\_this day in full the books also date it 9 September 1986 \_on this day
September 18, 1986thursday
While a terrorist vague submerged France, the French military attaché, Christian Goutierre was assassinated in Mar Takla.
\_this day in full the books also date it 17 September 1986 \_on this day
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He was shot in the head 25 m from the ambassador's office, a day after the rue de Rennes attack in Paris (7 dead, 55 wounded).
September 25, 1986thursday
The UNIFL Blue Helmets repositioned themselves; they occupied three out of the 32 positions they were initially occupying.
\_this day in full the books also date it 23 September 1986 \_on this day
September 27, 1986saturday
500 fighters led by Elie Hobeika entered Achrafieh where they fought ferociously with Geagea's men. The Lebanese Forces and the army rebuffed the infiltration. 65 persons lost their lives in the operation while 200 others were wounded.
\_this day in full the books also date it 26 September 1986, 29 September 1986 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Dates differ: 27 September (de Clerck and Malsagne), 29 September (Hanf), or by 26 September (Ménargues). Hanf has the Lebanese army halting an attack launched across the green line from West Beirut, after which former comrades killed a few hundred of Hobeika's men.
September 29, 1986monday
Colonel Khalil Kanaan was assassinated in his home in Hazmieh. A French journalist, Jean-Marc Sroussi, was kidnapped in the Southern suburbs of Beirut.
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December 2, 1986tuesday
A general strike paralyzed the country. The Lebanese were unable to cope with the increase in prices. The leaders couldn't find any solution to the crisis. The popular discontent was on the rise.
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December 5, 1986friday
Abou Melhem died. The great TV comedian, whose real name was Adib Haddad, became famous for playing, for many years, the character of a villager famous for his common sense. The grandfather of all the Lebanese had disappeared.
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December 13, 1986saturday
The Camps Car continued. After ten hours of violent combats, the Chatila camp was 90% destroyed and tens of deaths were reported.
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Typhoid broke out in besieged Chatila during this third camps war.
December 19, 1986friday
Violent combats opposed in Tripoli the Syrian Army to Islamist militiamen. The fights made 12 dead and 35 injuries. The Syrian Army launched an Islamists hunting at the end of which one of the major leaders of the Islamic Unification Movement was arrested.
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Picard puts the toll of the December 1986 Syrian bombardment of Tripoli at more than 100 dead.
December 24, 1986wednesday
Aurel Cornea, one of the Antenne 2 journalists kidnapped on June 21, was released by the Organization of Revolutionary Justice.
\_this day in full the books also date it 8 March 1986 \_on this day
\_what the books add
The Antenne 2 crew was kidnapped on 8 March 1986 (de Clerck and Malsagne), not on 21 June.
December 26, 1986friday
The dollar crossed the 80 Lebanese Pounds threshold. It continued its rise to reach the fateful three digit numbers. According to statistics, consumer products had increased by 204% in a year and the Lebanese Pound had depreciated by 365%.
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Historians give lower figures for 1986: retail inflation of 162 per cent (Hanf, after the central bank) or a 95 per cent rise in Beirut consumer prices, and a 134 per cent devaluation of the pound (de Clerck and Malsagne).
February 1, 1987sunday
The MEA suspended its flights therefore causing a de facto closing of the Beirut International Airport, while the few companies that were still flying into the airport (Soviet, Czech, and Bulgarian) decided to cancel their flights.
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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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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.
February 7, 1987saturday
The confrontations intensified around the Palestinian camps of Chatila and Bourj Brajneh. The risk of escalation intensified.
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By late 1986, say de Clerck and Malsagne, Chatila was 90 percent destroyed, yet 500 to 1,000 Palestinians held out inside. In the winter of 1987, Picard writes, many Palestinians in the besieged Beirut camps died of hunger.
February 12, 1987thursday
While the Lebanese Pound continued to fall, the chief of State Amine Gemayel, arrived in Bruxelles to request a social and economic help from the European countries.
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February 15, 1987sunday
A vast military confrontation between Amal and the PSP erupted in West Beirut. It was a prelude to the entrance of 12,000 Syrian soldiers in this region. However, they didn't deploy in the Southern suburbs.
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Hanf has the PSP and its leftist allies overrunning Amal's Murr Tower headquarters and taking Hamra after five days of what he calls West Beirut's worst fighting, its destruction on the scale of the 1982 siege. The size of the Syrian force differs by source: 12,000 soldiers plus Special Forces (de Clerck and Malsagne), 8,000 (Quéméner), two brigades (Hanf), the re-formed 85th Brigade (Fisk). The troops entered on 22 February according to most sources (see addition 1987-02-22).
July 1, 1987wednesday
The American Ambassador in Lebanon confirms to President Gemayel that the policy of his country towards Lebanon hasn't changed.
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