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275 news for February, June, December

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February 14, 1984tuesday
Amal and PSP met in Khaldeh, while only Souk El Gharb was still controlled by the Army in the mountain.

\_this day in full the books also date it 15 February 1984 \_on this day

\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne give 14 February 1984 for the PSP's capture of the Chahhar district, part of a week-long uprising in Beirut and the mountain.

February 15, 1984wednesday
Mechref and Damour fell under the control of the PSP, while violent combats raged around Souk El Gharb, the last obstacle in the mountain.

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Hanf counts some 15,000 Christian civilians leaving the coastal Chouf for Israeli-occupied territory; Mechref is not named.

February 17, 1984friday
The Marines withdrew from Beirut. The Italian contingent of the Multinational Force was soon to follow. The capital was left on its own.

\_this day in full the books also date it 7 February 1984, 31 July 1984 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Sources date the Marines' departure differently. Hanf: the US announced the 'redeployment' to the ships on 7 February. De Clerck and Malsagne: the evacuation ran from 7 to 26 February, and their chronology dates the MNF withdrawal 26 February - 31 March. Fisk: a last Marine detachment guarding the embassy left on 31 July 1984. The Italians left on 20 February (Hanf).

February 29, 1984wednesday
President Amine Gemayel visited Damascus. The observers expected a normalization soon after. Indeed, the Syrian President approved the opening of new round Israeli-Lebanese negotiations.

\_this day in full the books also date it 24 February 1984, 26 February 1984 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Ménargues gives two different days for this visit: 24 February in his prologue and 26 February in another passage. Hanf and Fisk both give 29 February. Fisk notes a 21-gun salute; Hanf says Gemayel told Assad he was ready to abrogate the 17 May agreement.

June 7, 1984thursday
It was impossible to put an end to the blind shelling. No one, neither a national union government, nor a 4-party military commission, was able to stop the bombardment of the residential areas which started 24 hours ago and had caused 5 dead and 37 injured persons so far.

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June 8, 1984friday
16 French observers positioned on the 888 hill and at Kalaat El Hosn in the mountain.

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June 11, 1984monday
This is one of the most violent days since 1976. No words are enough to describe the ongoing butchery. 90 persons lost their lives and 353 were wounded on this single day.

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June 12, 1984tuesday
While Lebanon was burying its dead, the Parliament voted the confidence by 53 votes against 15, and 3 abstentions. The Chamber extended its mandate for 2 years.

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June 18, 1984monday
As a result of marathon debates launched by Khaddam in Bickfaya, Gemayel, Karameh, Berri and Joumblatt agreed on a global security plan.

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June 23, 1984saturday
54 days after its formation, the Karameh government adopted a new security plan as well as a new defense law. A military council comprising six members was created and Michel Aoun was appointed commander in chief of the Army.
Michel Aoun was born in 1935 in Haret Hreik, in the Southern suburbs of Beirut. He started his military carrier in 1955 when he was 20 years old. He specialized in artillery, and accomplished several military trainings in France and the United States before spending 2 years, from 1978 to 1980, at the Ecole de Guerre (War Academy) in Paris. Back to Lebanon, he was promoted to corporal and, on the 24th of June 1984, he became commander in chief of the Army.

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De Clerck and Malsagne give 23 June 1984 for Aoun's appointment, which contradicts the '24th of June' in the entry's own biography text. Hanf calls Aoun, commander of the Souk al-Gharb front, well liked by soldiers of both religions, and says the security plan was accepted only once the six-member command council was in place.

June 27, 1984wednesday
The Israeli aviation and navy bombed the Rabbits Island off Tripoli. 15 fishermen were injured.

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December 3, 1984monday
Guns were still echoing in the Iqlim.

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December 7, 1984friday
Fights were reported downtown causing the Ring to close.

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December 11, 1984tuesday
The dollar exceeded 9 Lebanese Pounds.

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\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne give 8.7 pounds to the dollar for 1984, without a month.

December 13, 1984thursday
The Israelis launched a wide repression operation in South Lebanon. 3,000 men searched the region for members of the Resistance and arrested several of them.

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Fisk counts a hundred attacks on Israeli forces in December 1984, when the Sayeret Matkal commandos searched villages east of Tyre on foot and Shin Bet men beat youths each time. De Clerck and Malsagne date the complete sealing-off of the Israeli-held zone from the rest of Lebanon to autumn 1984.

December 15, 1984saturday
The Army's deployment plan between Madfoun and the Awali river as well as in the Iqlim El Kharroub was finally executed. The entire population went on strike in South Lebanon to protest against the military operation of December 13.

\_this day in full the books also date it 9 January 1985 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf dates the army's advance into the Sidon region to 9 January 1985, as Israel began pulling back. Some of the 15 December deployment may have been north of the Awali, which he does not detail. The southern strike is not in the books.

December 20, 1984thursday
The Army deployed its troops in Tripoli.

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December 21, 1984friday
A car bomb killed five persons and wounded 30 others, including 19 children in Ras El Metn.

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December 29, 1984saturday
The parents of hostages divided the capital in two in a protest action.

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February 1, 1985friday
An assault against a mosque in Tripoli caused eight deaths and 66 injuries.

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February 4, 1985monday
Nothing could stop the dollar from rising. For the first time, the green bill was exchanged for over 15 Pounds on the Beirut stock market while the French Franc was quoted at 1.55 Pounds. The Lebanese authorities requested help from Saudi Arabia and asked Rafic Hariri to intercede with King Fahd to grant Lebanon 500 million dollars to boost the economy.

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Annual figures: the pound fell to about 16 to the dollar in 1985 against 6.5 in 1984, with retail inflation of about 70 per cent (Hanf, citing Abou Rjaily and Labaki); de Clerck and Malsagne put the 1985 devaluation at 150 per cent. Hanf notes that rumours of large PLO deposits briefly strengthened the pound in early 1985.

February 7, 1985thursday
Crewmembers of a Cyprus Airways Boeing were held hostages for 5 hours at the Beirut International Airport, by armed elements from Hay El Sellom. As a result, the company suspends its flights to Beirut.

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February 17, 1985sunday
The army made a triumphal entrance in Saida. The transition was smooth and no incident followed the Israeli departure.

\_this day in full the books also date it 9 January 1985 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Traboulsi dates Israel's exit from Sidon to 17 February 1985. Fisk describes Christians and Muslims briefly celebrating together when Lebanese troops arrived.

February 17, 1985sunday
President Gemayel made an unexpected visit to Saida where he was warmly acclaimed. The next day, Islamist women in chador demonstrated in Saida and burnt a Lebanese flag. They also destroyed bars and cafZs, and chanted slogans against the legal authorities.

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Prime Minister Rashid Karami travelled with Gemayel. Hanf records kidnappings of Christians and counter-kidnappings after several thousand Islamists from Beirut rallied in Sidon next day for an Islamic republic while the army stood aside.

February 23, 1985saturday
A security inspector hijacked a Beirut-Paris MEA flight. A passenger was killed and 13 others were injured. The hijacker had wage claims.

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A passenger died on the runway, flung there by the jets' blast, because the hijacker, Fisk writes, made the Larnaca plane take off with its doors open.

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.

June 11, 1985tuesday
A Boeing of the Alia airlines was hijacked by a suicide commando called Moussa Sadr, requesting the evacuation of all Palestinian fighters from Beirut. The hostages were freed the next day and the airplane was dynamited at the Beirut International Airport.

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An American passenger was hijacked twice in a day, Fisk writes: moved from the Jordanian plane, which Amal gunmen set alight on the runway, onto an MEA Boeing that a Lebanese then seized in protest.

June 14, 1985friday
A car bomb exploded next to a checkpoint belonging to the sixth brigade in Jnah causing 13 dead and 36 injured.
A Boeing 727 from the TWA connecting Athena to Rome was hijacked over Beirut. The hijackers requested the liberation of all prisoners held in Israeli jails. One of the US passengers was shot. Nabih Berri negotiated with the hijackers, and around 40 American hostages were transferred to the Southern suburbs of Beirut. A US naval force headed to Lebanon on June 17. On June 24, Israel released 31 prisoners. On June 30, the US hostages were released. An International Red Cross convoy took them to Damascus where they boarded on a plane going to Frankfurt.

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Fisk identifies the TWA 847 hijackers as Hezbollah members operating as Islamic Jihad and names Imad Mughniyeh as the planner; the passenger they killed was Robert Stethem, a US Navy diver. Amal moved most of the passengers into the southern suburbs. In the end Syrian officers received the hostages and took them to Damascus, and Israel released its Lebanese Shia prisoners over the next two months.

June 17, 1985monday
The Damascus agreement put an end to the Camps War that caused, in four weeks, 700 deaths and 2,500 injured.

\_this day in full the books also date it 12 March 1985, 19 May 1985, 22 May 1985 \_on this day

\_what the books add

This ceasefire closed only the first round (May-June 1985) of the 'War of the Camps', also known as the 'Ramadan war'; by the time Syria imposed it, Fisk reports, 600 people had died. Sieges and fighting returned in 1986 and went on until 1987-1988; de Clerck and Malsagne count 2,000 to 3,000 victims in all.

June 20, 1985thursday
As part of the war between Sunni Islamists and the Arab Democratic Party, a car bomb exploded in Tripoli killing 50 persons and wounding 110 others.

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June 27, 1985thursday
Elias Sarkis, former President of the Lebanese Republic, died at 61 years old. He was suffering from a disease that paralyzed his lymphatic and nervous system. Grandiose funerals were organized in Mar Takla church in Hazmieh.

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\_what the books add

Elias Sarkis died in Paris (de Clerck and Malsagne).

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

\_what the books add

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 3, 1986monday
Death hit once again. A bomb hidden in a suitcase exploded in Jdeideh killing four persons and wounding 22 others.

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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.

June 13, 1986friday
The Muslim leaders agreed with Damascus upon the replacement of militias by regular Lebanese forces. Karameh who was back from Damascus presented the resignation of his government.

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Hanf records no resignation by Karami in 1986. He says Karami resisted calls to resign that autumn and resigned only on 4 May 1987.

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