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31 news for February, June, September, November, December 1985

with the books
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

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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

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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

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

September 3, 1985tuesday
Beirut was cut into two. There were severe shortages of bread and gas.

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September 4, 1985wednesday
14 dead and 74 injured persons were reported in Zahleh as a result of a car bomb explosion. Three days later, the Syrians invaded the town.

\_this day in full the books also date it 11 August 1985 \_on this day

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Syrian troops entered Zahleh on 7 September after the Lebanese Forces' withdrawal (Hanf).

September 5, 1985thursday
Violent combats opposed Amal and the PSP in West Beirut.

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September 10, 1985tuesday
Syrian observers tried to calm the situation in the Palestinian camp of Bourj Brajneh. Violent combats had opposed Amal to the Palestinians in this camp, causing 40 deaths and 120 injuries.

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September 12, 1985thursday
An isolated incident degenerated into confrontations between the Lebanese Forces militiamen in the Eastern neighborhoods.

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September 16, 1985monday
In Tripoli, ten soldiers from the Lebanese Army were killed and 35 others wounded by shells that fell on the Bahjat Ghanem barracks.

\_this day in full the books also date it 7 October 1985 \_on this day

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On 7 October, Hanf writes, 20,000 Syrian soldiers entered Tripoli, after pro-Syrian groups had in September 1985 attacked the Tawheed movement then holding the city; some 250,000 civilians fled.

September 18, 1985wednesday
Presidents Chamoun, Frangieh, and Helou met in Smar-Jbeil in order to launch wide Christian sittings.

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September 24, 1985tuesday
A first Lebanese Forces-Amal-PSP meeting was held in Damascus.

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In Hanf's account Berri offered the Christians a choice: a census to reset sectarian proportions, or an end to proportionality. Asked by Jumblatt why Syria dealt with Hobeika, Khaddam reportedly said everyone in Lebanon was a murderer.

September 28, 1985saturday
Another dramatic day in Beirut and its surroundings where artillerymen killed 32 persons and wounded 76 others.

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September 29, 1985sunday
The Beirut International Airport was bombed and some installations were destroyed.

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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

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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.

November 10, 1985sunday
Terry Waite, the envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived in Beirut to negotiate with the Islamic Jihad the release of the four US hostages. He had a tough and lengthy mission that required a second visit to Beirut on December 20.

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Fisk: Waite made three Beirut trips; on the first, invited by Islamic Jihad, he stayed in Terry Anderson's flat, met the kidnappers blindfolded and took their message to Washington.

November 13, 1985wednesday
The Eastern regions went on strike to protest against the suicide truck killing attempt perpetrated against the leaders of the Lebanese Front gathered in the St Georges convent in Awkar. The assault caused 4 dead and 36 wounded, including Elie Karameh, Edouard Honein, and Fouad Ephrame Boustany who were slightly injured.

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

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Hobeika and President Gemayel escaped injury only because they were not in their cars when these were attacked; Chamoun, Elie Karami and other Lebanese Front leaders were hurt. Hanf places these attempts in a series that, in his view, hardened the confrontation over the Damascus agreement.

November 16, 1985saturday
It is in front of 15,000 persons including 2,000 Lebanese gathered in the St Peter basilica in Rome that Sister Rafka Rayes, a maronite from Lebanon, was declared blessed by Pope John Paul II. Sister Rafka was born in 1832 in Hamlaya.

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November 19, 1985tuesday
For the first time since 1982, a duel between Israeli and Syrian airplanes took place in the Lebanese sky. Two Syrian Migs were shot down. The Syrians decided after this incident to install Sam-2 ground-air missiles on the Syrian-Lebanese border.

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November 20 to 24, 1985wednesday
Violent combats opposed Amal and the PSP in West Beirut. Five days of hell followed for the residents of this region. 65 persons were killed and 250 were wounded.

\_this day in full the books also date it 21 November 1985 \_on this day

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Hanf's 'Flag War': on 21 November alone, Shi'i and Druze fighters fought with tanks and artillery, leaving 65 dead and over 400 abducted. PSP militiamen had replaced the national flags Sixth Brigade soldiers put on public buildings for Independence Day with their party banner.

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.