Military action in Lebanon
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This is a list of individual military and terrorist actions in Lebanon.
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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. Israeli troops occupied 28 villages named as the 'seven villages'. on 17th of 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 September 1948, Haganah militia massacred 70 civilians in the village of Salha.[1] (http://home.iprimus.com.au/fidamelhem/ssnp/The%20israeli_massacre_of_salha.htm)
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 airplanes 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.
17 May 1975, Israeli forces kill 19 civilians in the village of Aytaroun.
21 October 1976, Israeli forces kill 23 civilians in the city of BintJbeil.
16 December 1976, Israeli forces kill 20 civilians in the village of Hanin.
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. 26 civilians were killed in the village of Ouzai, near Beirut, by an Israeli warplane attack.
15 March 1978, Israeli forces kill 16 civilians in the village of Kounine in the south. It kills also 79 civilians in the village of Abbassiyye.
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).
On December 15, 1981, a car bomb destroyed the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut, killing 61 and wounding 100. This attack was the first modern suicide bombing and set off a wave of such attacks in Lebanon. A group called al-Dawa ("the call") claimed responsibility, but Iraq blamed Syrian intelligence agents.
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. In a videotape released to Al Jazeera on Friday, October 29, 2004, Osama bin Laden stated that this military action inspired the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. ("And as I was looking at those towers that were destroyed in Lebanon, it occurred to me that we have to punish the transgressor with the same -- and that we had to destroy the towers in America ... ")
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 in 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.
- David Dodge (July 1982; President of the American University of Beirut[AUB])
- Terry Anderson (March 16, 1985; US journalist),
- Thomas Sutherland (June 9, 1985; US academic),
- 4 Soviet diplomats (Sept 30, 1985; one killed),
- John McCarthy (April 17, 1986; British TV journalist),
- Joseph Cicippio (Sept 12, 1986; US academic),
- Edward Tracy (Oct 21, 1986; US businessman),
- Terry Waite (Jan 10, 1987; British church envoy),
- Jesse Turner and Alan Steen (Jan 24, 1987; US tourists)
were all kidnapped, and all eventually released during the last months of 1991. Other kidnapping victims who died in captivity:
- Also Peter Kilburn (AUB librarian),
- 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
| Attack | Date | Description | Party | Civilian Casualties* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beirut | 12/15/1981 | Suicide car bomb attack on Iraqi Embassy | Syrian intelligence | 61 |
| Beirut | 4/18/1983 | Suicide truck bomb attack on US Embassy | US accuse Hezbollah while he denies | 63 |
| Beirut | 10/23/1983 | Suicide truck bomb attack on US Marine barracks, part of the multinational force | US accuse Hezbollah while he denies | 241 |
| Beirut | 3/8/1984 | Suicide car bomb attack; possible attempt to assassinate leader of Hizballah | Arab(backed by CIA?) | 80(200w) |
| Beirut | 9/20/1984 | Suicide bomb attack on US Embassy, injuring US and British ambassadors | US accuse Hezbollah while he denies | 23 |
| Sohmor Massacre | 9/19/1984 | Inhabitants were "ordered to congregate at the town's mosque where they [were fired upon] by Israelis". | Israel | 13 |
| Jibchit | 3/27/1984 | Israeli warplane attack over the village | Israel | 13 |
| Maaraka | 3/5/1985 | An explosion during aid distribution | ? | 15 |
| Zrariah | 3/11/1985 | Israel | ? | |
| Homeen Al-Tahta | 3/21/1985 | Israel | ? | |
| Hijacking of Flight 847 | 6/14/1985 | TWA flight 847 was hijacked and landed in Beirut. 1 passenger shot; the rest eventually released | ?? | 1 |
| AUB killings | 4/17/1986 | 3 employees of the American University of Beirut were found shot | The Arab Revolutionary Cells | 3 |
| Tiri Massacre | 8/17/1986 | Israel | 4 (many w)? | |
| Nahr el Bared camp | 12/11/1986 | Air raid | Israel | 20? |
| Ein Hilwe camp | 9/5/1987 | Air raids | Israel | 64? |
* 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 (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.
24 May 2001, Israeli planes intercepted a small civilian plane, 9 km in south Lebanon, and shoot it near Mikhmoret beach in northern Israel. Israel says the plane entered its territories and then shoot it. [2] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1348836.stm)
14 February 2005, Huge bomb in Beirut kills former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and nine others. The Lebanese opposition blames Syria and the pro-Damascus Lebanese government for carrying out the assassination.
Withdrawal of Syrian troops
Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, the top Syrian ally in the Lebanese security forces, resigned on Monday, April 25, 2005, just a day before the final Syrian troops pulled out of Lebanon.
On April 26, 2005, the last 250 Syrian troops left Lebanon.
During the departure ceremonies, Gen. Ali Habib, Syria's chief of staff, said that Syria's president had decided to recall his troops after the Lebanese army had been "rebuilt on sound national foundations and became capable of protecting the state."
UN forces led by Senegalese Brig. Gen. Mouhamadou Kandji were sent to Lebanon to verify the military withdrawal which was mandated by UN Security Council Resolution 1559.
References
- The Aldinnia Clash (http://www.lebanonwire.com/0209/02091201HZ.asp)
- After the Lebanon Withdrawal (Israeli website) (http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=28)
- Refugee situation in Lebanon as of 2001 (PDF) (http://www.asylumlaw.org/docs/lebanon/ind01_lebanon_ca.pdf)
- 2002 Landmine Monitor report (http://www.icbl.org/lm/2002/lebanon.html)