Military action in Lebanon
\n\n[This article needs cleaning up and much further detail]
This is a list of individual military and terrorist actions in Lebanon.
War within Lebanon
Lebanon has suffered constant attacks, from within and from all sides, since its most recent independence from French rule in 1943. What follows is a list of some of the more significant actions, in contrast with the broader overview offered in the history of Lebanon.
Before 1967
In 1948, Lebanon absorbed a great number of Palestinian refugees from Israel.\n"Israeli troops occupied the 'seven villages'". on October of the same year, the Hagana attacked a small village near the border named Hula (حولا); killing over 35 cvilians. See more in Hula_massacre.
In 1958, Arab Druze and Sunni forces, supported in part by Syria, tried to overthrow the government. This led to political chaos and many civilian deaths, and was eventually suppressed by further foreign intervention (this time by the US).
1967 to 1975
In 1967, during the Six Days War, "the Shebaa Farms region of Lebanon was occupied, as well as Kfarshouba farms, while Israel was invading Syria."
On 29 December 1969, Israeli airplaes attacked Beirut International Airport and destroyed 13 grounded planes.
Civil War (1975 - 1976)
In 1975, full civil war broke out, with the Lebanese Front on one side and the PLO on the other. Israeli intervened to try to stop the civil war.
In 1976, Syria entered Lebanon, with the blessing of the Arab League and the invitation of the Lebanese president, to help suppress the ongoing civil war without further Israeli intervention.
1977 to 1982
On 14 March 1978, Israel invaded Lebanon in response to attacks by the PLO, in what was known as the Litani operation.
Soon afterwards, a 6000-person UNIFIL force, and the South Lebanon Security Zone (overseen by a Lebanese militia, supported by Israel), are set up to keep the peace.
In 1981, Israel lauched a number of artillery and air raids on Lebanese targets. This resulted in what was later known as the Saida Massacre, on April 4, 1981, when one of Saida’s residential areas was targeted by artillery, killing 20 civilians. On July 17 of that year, Israeli planes hit parts of Beirut, Ouzai, Ramlet Al Baida, Fakhani, Chatila and an area near the Arab University, resulting in as many as 150 civilian casualties (both casualty estimates from Lebanese sources).
1982 to 1990
Israel invaded Lebanon again in the summer of 1982, after their ambassador to England was shot and seriously wounded by members of the Abu Nidal Organization, and occupied Beirut.
On September 14, 1982, Newly-elected Lebanese President Bachir Gemayel was assassinated while at a Beirut political meeting by a massive car bomb, by a pro-Syrian Lebanese group. Meanwhile, a multinational peacekeeping force arrived.
On April 18, 1983, 63 people, including the CIA's Middle East Director, were killed and 120 injured in a 400 lb (180 kg) suicide truck bomb attack on the US Embassy \nin Beirut, Lebanon. The driver was killed; responsibility was claimed by Islamic Jihad. On March 16, 1984, Beirut's CIA station chief William Buckley was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad and killed.
After suffering heavy casualties and finding little success, the multinational peacekeeping force left in 1984.
Starting in 1982, the kidnapping of international (generally US and British) travellers in Beirut became a regular occurrence; 30 would be kidnapped over the course of a decade. \n:David Dodge (July 1982; President of the American University of Beirut[AUB])\n:Terry Anderson (March 16, 1985; US journalist), \n:Thomas Sutherland (June 9, 1985; US academic), \n:4 Soviet diplomats (Sept 30, 1985; one killed), \n:John McCarthy (April 17, 1986; British TV journalist), \n:Joseph Cicippio (Sept 12, 1986; US academic), \n:Edward Tracy (Oct 21, 1986; US businessman), \n:Terry Waite (Jan 10, 1987; British church envoy), \n:Jesse Turner and Alan Steen (Jan 24, 1987; US tourists)
were all kidnapped, and all eventually released during the last months of 1991. \nOther kidnapping victims who died in captivity:
- Also Peter Kilburn (AUB librarian), \n:Benjamin Weir (Presbyterian minister)
In 1985, Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon, after which civil war began again; a coalition of the Druze and Shiite arabs with the PLO defeated Lebanese forces in southern Lebanon, inflicting many civilian casualties.
Table of Attacks
\n| Attack | Date | Description | Party | Civilian Casualties* | \n| Beirut | \n4/18/1983 | \nSuicide truck bomb attack on US Embassy | \nIslamic Jihad | \n63\n | \n
\n| Beirut | \n10/23/1983 | \nSuicide truck bomb attack on US Marine barracks, part of the multinational force | \nArab(Hizballah?) | \n241\n | \n
\n| Beirut | \n3/8/1984 | \nSuicide car bomb attack; possible attempt to assassinate leader of Hizballah | \nArab(backed by CIA?) | \n80(200w)\n | \n
\n| Beirut | \n9/20/1984 | \nSuicide bomb attack on US Embassy, injuring US and British ambassadors | \nHizballah | \n23 | \n
\n| Sohmor Massacre | \n3/27/1984 | \nInhabitants were "ordered to congregate at the town's mosque where they [were fired upon] by Israelis". | \nIsrael | \n13\n | \n
\n| Maaraka | \n3/5/1985 | \nAn explosion during aid distribution | \n? | \n15 | \n
\n| Zrariah | \n3/11/1985 | \n[reputable source/spelling needed] | \nIsrael | \n? | \n
\n| Homeen Al-Tahta | \n3/21/1985 | \n[reputable source/spelling needed] | \nIsrael | \n? | \n
\n| Hijacking of Flight 847 | \n6/14/1985 | \nTWA flight 847 was hijacked and landed in Beirut. 1 passenger shot; the rest eventually released | \nHizballah | \n1 | \n
\n| AUB killings | \n4/17/1986 | \n3 employees of the American University of Beirut were found shot | \nThe Arab Revolutionary Cells | \n3 | \n
\n| Tiri Massacre | \n8/17/1986 | \n[reputable source/spelling needed] | \nIsrael | \n4 (many w)? | \n
\n \n| Nahr el Bared camp | \n12/11/1986 | \nAir raid [reputable source needed] | \nIsrael | \n20? | \n
\n| Ein Hilwe camp | \n9/5/1987 | \nAir raids [reputable source needed] | \nIsrael | \n64? | \n
* Most casualty estimates from Lebanese sources. Estimates for attacks on US buildings from US sources.
Since 1990
Lebanon has become more stable in the past fifteen years, and has started to police its own borders without needing military support from Syria or international peacekeeping forces. However, some parts of southern Lebanon were still occupied by Israel and only returned to Lebanese control in May of 2000.
On April 18, 1996, the
Israeli Defense Forces shelled the regional headquarters of a Fijian division of United Nations peacekeepers in Qana, during a clash with a guerilla group firing mortars and rockets. The
Qana Massacre, as it was later called, resulted in 102 civilians deaths and more wounded.
At the end of 1999, a guerilla raid on the Islamic broadcast station in Tripoli\n(by a group run by Bassam Ahmed Alqanj) ended in a clash near Jrud Aldinnia with the Lebanese army in which the group killed two women and 15 soldiers. The Alqanj group aimed to overthrow the Lebanese government and replace it with a religious Islamic state. This same organization had earlier [1994-1997] carried out the murder of Sheikh Nizar Halabi and of four judges in Sidon, as well as attacks on churches in Tripoli.
On January 30, 1998, A group of 200 followers of Sheikh Subhi al-Tufayli clashed with the Lebanese army at a Hizballah seminary in
Baalbek, near Bekaa, leaving 8 dead and many wounded.
In January, 2000, Colonel Aql Hashem, commander of the
SLA Western Brigade, was killed by explosive charges laid by Hizballah at his home inside the security zone.
Around June 6, 2000, forces claiming to be with Hizballah (this was officially denied) captured 20 men from Aitaroun; 5 were later released, but the others remain unaccounted for.
There have been over a hundred casualties since the liberation of southern Lebanon on
May 25,
2000, due to Israeli land mines and unexploded shells in the area.
References
