387 news for February, March, September, December
with the books\_this day in full the books also date it 9 January 1985 \_on this day
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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.
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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.
\_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.
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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.
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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.
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On 4 March 1985, a day after an Israeli raid, a bomb on the roof of the resistance office above Maarakeh's mosque killed Khalil Jerardi, nominally Amal but a Hezbollah supporter, and Mohammed Saad, an Amal commander in the south. French UN officers who examined it believed the departing Israelis had left it (Fisk's report, not an established finding).
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See the note on 4 February: Hanf's yearly table puts the pound at 16 to the dollar for 1985.
\_this day in full the books also date it 9 March 1985 \_on this day
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Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the target, escaped with his bodyguard Imad Mughniyeh. Fisk dates the car bomb to 9 March and writes of more than 80 dead, nearly all civilians, citing the Washington Post on CIA involvement. De Clerck and Malsagne give 80 dead and 256 wounded and cite confessions by local agents, traced by Hezbollah, that the CIA commissioned it with Mossad help and Saudi funds.
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A survivor told Fisk an Israeli officer at Zrariyeh shot a Lebanese soldier who had surrendered. Tanks ran over occupied cars; gunmen, women and old men died; and the departing soldiers painted 'This is the revenge of the Israeli army' on the square.
\_this day in full the books also date it 8 January 1985, 17 March 1985 \_on this day
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Terry Anderson was the AP's Beirut bureau chief. He was seized near the Ain Mreisseh mosque and held for more than six years. Two Britons had been kidnapped in the two days before him; Islamic Jihad claimed all three on 17 March.
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Over 20,000 Sunnis fled Sidon after the 12 March revolt, as Lebanese Forces units east of the city, reinforced from the north, shelled its Muslim districts, Ain al-Hilweh camp and army posts near Mieh-Mieh. Nasserites, Palestinians and largely Sunni army units united against them (Hanf, Fisk).
A new wage increase was decided, raising the minimum salary to 1475 Lebanese Pounds.
\_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).
\_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.
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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.
\_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.
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.
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Picard places the wave of killings of Communist and pro-Iraqi Baath leaders in January 1986.
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Seurat and Kauffmann were taken on the airport road on 22 May 1985. Fisk says Seurat died of cancer in captivity, his kidnappers claiming an 'execution' with a photograph of the body. Imad Mughniyeh is suspected of a direct role (Aurélie Daher, in Confluences); Hezbollah's leaders always denied it.