Hanf says that once the Tripartite Agreement had been signed, on 28 December 1985, Hobeika turned Lebanese Forces units against militias loyal to President Gemayel and the Kataeb.

For Gemayel, says Traboulsi, the accord robbed the presidency of its arbitrating role; they last met on 13-14 January 1986.

Historians date Geagea's takeover to 15 January 1986 (de Clerck and Malsagne; Picard's chronology dates Gemayel's rejection of the accord to the same day). Traboulsi's narrative gives 12 March 1986 instead. De Clerck and Malsagne put the dead at about 800, far above the 100 given here. Hobeika was flown out by army helicopter after an army mediation backed by the patriarch, was briefly exiled in France, then settled in Zahle under Syrian protection.

Hanf dates the main offensive, by SSNP fighters with Syrian support toward Bikfaya (at Douar and on the Baskinta-Bikfaya road), to the second half of February; it was stopped by the Lebanese army.

Hanf writes that Prime Minister Karami joined Jumblatt and Berri in boycotting cabinet sessions chaired by Gemayel, whose resignation the two had demanded after the Tripartite Agreement failed.

Picard places the wave of killings of Communist and pro-Iraqi Baath leaders in January 1986.

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.

De Clerck and Malsagne date the kidnapping of the Antenne 2 crew to 8 March 1986. It was claimed by the "Revolutionary Justice Organisation".

Hanf cites the observers' heavy casualties and a ceasefire nobody respected, which left them nothing to do.

De Clerck and Malsagne date Mgr Silvestrini's mission to March 1986 and consider that it overreached, showing the limits of Vatican influence.

Fisk: Libyan agents in Beirut had bought Kilburn and both British teachers from freelance kidnappers; the deaths were reported the night of the US raid on Libya.

Hanf dates Sfeir's election to April 1986 and notes that the Lebanese Forces had lobbied for a more hard-line churchman.

Some Westerners stayed: Fisk counts four Western journalists still working in West Beirut.

According to Hanf, the postponed meeting took place in June, in West Beirut.

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