Timeline Lebanon
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Lebanon lies in
the eastern
Mediterranean and covers about 4,033 square
miles, smaller than Connecticut. From a narrow coastal strip, the land
rises steeply to the Mount Lebanon range whose highest peak reaches
10,131 feet.
(AP, 6/19/05)
Some Lebanese claim descent from the ancient Phoenicians. But
Assyrians, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Mamelukes, Arabs
and Ottoman Turks all ruled what is now Lebanon. The Lebanese lived
under French rule after World War I, then gained independence in 1943.
Christians dominated, but Muslim demands for reform helped trigger the
1975-90 civil war that killed 150,000. A 1989 Arab-brokered agreement
ended the war. Israel withdrew in 2000. Syrian troops who came in near
the start of the civil war finished their pullout on April 26, 2005.
(AP, 6/19/05)
Lebanon has few natural resources so, for centuries, the people have
specialized in commerce. Before the civil war, Lebanon was the
commercial center of the Middle East and its currency was one of the
strongest in the region. It was also a major tourist center. The war
gutted the economy and destroyed much of the infrastructure. Postwar
reconstruction rebuilt central Beirut but plunged the country into $30
billion in debt.
(AP, 6/19/05)
c5,000BC
Archeologists at Byblos found at least 12 layers of civilizations that
dated back 7,000 years.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T9)
2291BC-2254BC Naram-Sin ruled Akkad. He defeated a
rebel coalition in Sumer and re-established Akkadian power. He
re-conquered Syria, Lebanon, and the Taurus mountains, destroying
Aleppo and Mari in the process. During his reign the Gutians
sacked the city of Agade and eventually destroyed all of Sumer
(southern Iraq). During his reign Naram-Sin campaigned against the
region of Magan (Oman).
(http://tinyurl.com/ctv5f)
900BC-700BC In 2008 archeologists found pottery
in Tyre, Lebanon, that was used by Phoenicians during this period.
(AP, 11/12/08)
220AD At Baalbeck in the Bekaa
Valley the Romans constructed an incomplete acropolis that contained a
Temple of Jupiter and a Temple of Bacchus.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T9)
1110 May 13, Crusaders marched
into Beirut causing a bloodbath.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1124 Jul 7, Tyre [Tyrus]
surrendered to the Crusaders.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1857 In Lebanon the modern wine
industry began when a group of Jesuit monks founded Chateau Ksara in
the Bekaa Valley.
(SFC, 1/11/08, p.F4)
1880 Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine
were part of Syria under Ottoman rule.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.80)
1912 Feb 24, Italy bombed Beirut
in the first act of war against the Ottoman Empire.
(HN, 2/24/98)
1916 May 19, The Sykes-Picot
Agreement was a secret understanding between the governments of Britain
and France defining their respective spheres of post-World War I
influence and control in the Middle East. The boundaries of this
agreement still remains in much of the common border between Syria and
Iraq. Britain and France carved up the Levant into an assortment of
monarchies, mandates and emirates. The agreement enshrined Anglo-French
imperialist ambitions at the end of WW II. Syria and Lebanon were put
into the French orbit, while Britain claimed Jordan, Iraq, the Gulf
states and the Palestinian Mandate. Sir Mark Sykes (d.1919 at age 39)
and Francois Picot made the deal.
(WSJ, 2/27/00,
p.A17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes-Picot_Agreement)
1920 The French carved Lebanon out
of Syria to create a predominantly Christian country. A constitution
was drawn up that required the president to be a Maronite Christian,
the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a
Shiite.
(SFC, 9/28/98, p.A10)
1920 The French and British signed
water treaties to tap the Wazzani for water needs in Lebanon,
regardless of effects on neighbors.
(SFC, 9/19/02, p.A12)
1930 In Lebanon the Musar vineyard
was founded.
(SFC, 1/11/08, p.F4)
1932 Edmund Safra (d.1999) was
born to a banking family in Beirut. The Safras left for Brazil in 1948.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A15)
1932 Lebanon counted the number of
adherents to various religions in order to share out power under a
system known as confessionalism. As of 2008 this was Lebanon’s last
census.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.99)
1936 Pierre Gemayel founded the
Phalange Party to exert Christian power in Lebanon. It dominated
Christian politics for decades after Lebanon's independence from France
in 1943.
(AP, 11/21/06)
1941 Nov 26, Free French General
Georges Catroux was placed in control of Syria and Lebanon. Shortly
after taking up this post, Catroux recognized the independence of Syria
and Lebanon in the name of the Free French movement.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria-Lebanon_campaign)
1943 Bishara al-Khuri was elected
the first president of modern-day Lebanon. Lebanon did not become fully
independent from French rule until 1946. Khuri had previously been
Secretary-General of Mount Lebanon (a political predecessor to modern
Lebanon administered by the French) as well as its Prime Minister on
several separate occasions. In 1943, the French held general elections
to fulfill their earlier promises of Lebanese independence. The new
government promptly passed legislation to remove French influences in
the constitution.
(HNQ, 12/24/00)
1943 Nov 11, The French voiced
their dissent by arresting Bishara al-Khuri and most of the
government. An insurrection, British diplomatic efforts and one
more crisis in 1945 finally left the government restored.
(HNQ, 12/24/00)
1945 Oct 20, Egypt, Syria, Iraq
and Lebanon formed the Arab League to present a unified front against
the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
(HN, 10/20/98)
1946 British and French troops
withdrew by the end of 1946 by which time Lebanon had become a member
of the United Nations.
(HNQ, 12/24/00)
1948 May 15, Hours after declaring
its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan,
Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. The first president of the State of
Israel, Chaim Weizmann, took office with the founding of the nation.
David Ben-Gurion was Israel’s first prime minister. Weizmann, born in
Russia in 1874, taught chemistry in England and as a leading Zionist
influenced Britain’s Balfour Declaration of 1917 favoring a Jewish
homeland in Palestine. Weizmann settled in Palestine in 1934 and
served as president of Israel from 1948 until his death in 1952.
(AP, 5/15/97)(HNQ, 6/19/99)
1948 Bishara al-Khuri managed to
get the national legislature to amend the constitution, to allow him to
run for a second term.
(HNQ, 12/24/00)
1949 Mar 23, Israel signed a
ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
(www.wikipedia.org)
1951 In Lebanon Kefraya opened its
first vineyard
(SFC, 1/11/08, p.F4)
1952 Sep, Alleged corruption and
growing opposition to the Khuri government led to a general strike that
forced his resignation. Khuri was succeeded by Camille Chamoun.
(HNQ, 12/24/00)
1954 Beirut Int’l. Airport opened.
In 1998 a new $460 million airport was under construction.
(WSJ, 4/6/98, p.A1)
1958 Jul 15, President Eisenhower
ordered 5,000 U.S. Marines to Lebanon, at the request of that country's
president, Camille Chamoun, in the face of a perceived threat by Muslim
rebels; to help end a short-lived civil war.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T8)(AP, 7/15/98)(HN, 7/15/98)
1958 Oct 25, The last U.S. troops
left Beirut
(HN, 10/25/98)
1960 St. John Philby died in
Beirut from a heart attack. He had orchestrated the Aramco oil deal in
Saudi Arabia.
(WSJ, 3/8/99, p.A16)
1968 Dec 28, Israel attacked the
Beirut Int’l. Airport, destroying 13 civilian planes. This was in
response to an attack on an Israeli airliner in Athens by the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Israeli_raid_on_Lebanon)
1969 Apr 23, The Lebanese army
battled with rioting Palestinians.
(http://tinyurl.com/5m9aj6)
1969 Nov 3, The Arab League
brokered a deal in Cairo that gave the PLO in Lebanon refugee camps
freedom of government interference. They reached an agreement that
effectively endorsed PLO freedom of action in Lebanon to recruit, arm,
train, and employ fighters against Israel. The Lebanese Army protected
their bases and supply lines.
(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_lebanon_cairo_1969.php)(Econ,
6/2/07, p.46)
1970 Sep 15, The Jordanian army
attacked Palestinian positions. Within days PLO officials and commandos
were expelled from Jordan and forced to move to Lebanon.
(www.nmhschool.org/tthornton/mehistorydatabase/arabisraeliwars.php)(SFC,
2/8/99, p.A6)
1971 The Palestine Liberation
Organization arrived in Lebanon following its ouster from Jordan after
losing the battles of “Black September.”
(SFC, 9/28/98, p.A10)
1972 May 30, Three militants of
the Japanese Red Army (PFL) staged a machine-gun and hand-grenade
attack at the Lod Airport in Israel. 24 people were killed and a 100
injured. The terrorists found refuge in Lebanon until 1997 when they
were arrested. Kozo Okamoto served 13 years of a life sentence in
Israel. In 2000 Lebanon granted asylum to Kozo Okamoto. 4 other
Japanese Red Army members were deported to Japan.
(SFC, 2/19/96, p.A8)(SFC, 3/18/00, p.A3)
1972 Prime Minister Saeb Salam
resigned office following an Israeli commando raid that killed 3
Palestinian guerrilla leaders in Beirut.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A21)
1973 Jul 20, The Japanese Red Army
and Lebanese guerrillas hijacked a Japan Airlines plane over the
Netherlands. The passengers and crew were released in Libya where the
hijackers blew up the plane.
(SFC, 11/9/00,
p.C2)(www.cdi.org/friendlyversion/printversion.cfm?documentID=1771)
1975 Apr 13, In Lebanon the
right-wing Christian Falange (Phalange) opened fire on a bus packed
with Palestinians in a low-income neighborhood after a drive-by attack
earlier in the day on a nearby church. The attacks killed 27
Palestinians and three Lebanese Christians. The ambush sparked a civil
war that lasted to 1990. The attack was made to avenge an attempted
assassination on Bashir Gemayel.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, p.T5)(AP, 4/12/05)(Econ, 11/25/06,
p.46)
1975 The (1999) film “West Beirut”
was directed by Ziad Doueiri. It followed a group of teenagers in
wartime Beirut in 1975.
(SFC, 11/1/99, p.E3)
1975 Maarouf Saad (d.2002), head
of the Independent Nasserite Popular Organization, was assassinated.
Mustafa Maarouf Saad (24), his son, took over as leader.
(SFC, 8/3/02, p.A18)
1975-1991 An estimated 17,000 Lebanese were reported
missing during the civil war. In 2000 a government commission ended a
7-month investigation and said the missing were probably all dead. The
civil war allowed an illicit drug trade to flourish in the Bekaa Valley.
(SFC, 9/29/98, p.A9)(SFC, 7/27/00, p.C16)
1976 Jan 22, A PLO bank robbery in
Beirut netted a world record $20-50 million.
(www.lebaneseforces.com/blastfromthepast001.asp)
1976 Jun 16, U.S. Ambassador
Francis E. Meloy, Jr. (b.1917) was murdered along with his associate
Robert Waring, an American economic advisor. The two had been en route
to a meeting with Lebanese president-elect Elias Sarkis when they were
abducted by Muslim guerillas in Beirut.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_E._Meloy,_Jr.)
1976 Aug 12, Syrian backed
Christian militias completed their siege of the Tell al-Za'tar
Palestinian camp in Lebanon leaving some 2000 people killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_al-Zaatar_massacre)
1976 Nov 15, A Syrian peace force
took control of Beirut, Lebanon. The Arab League gave Syria a
peacekeeping mandate.
(HN, 11/15/98)(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A8)
1976 Nov 21, Syrian army completed
its final phase of occupation of Lebanon.
(AP, 11/21/02)
1976-1991 There was a 15 year civil war and there was
no government and no army to control lawless groups.
(SFC, 2/19/96, p.A8)
1977 Sep 26, Israel announced a
cease-fire on Lebanese border.
(HN, 9/26/99)
1978 Mar 11, 34 Israelis were
killed as Palestinian guerrillas went on a rampage on the Tel
Aviv-Haifa highway. Palestinian guerrillas based in Lebanon attacked a
bus near Tel Aviv and killed over 35 people.
(AP, 3/11/98)(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1978 Mar 14, An Israeli force of
22,000 invaded south Lebanon, hitting the PLO bases.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_South_Lebanon_conflict)
1978 Mar 19, Israeli army took
control of almost all of Lebanon south of Litani River.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1978 Mar 19, The UN Security
Council adopted Resolution 425 demanding that Israel withdraw from
Lebanon.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1978 Mar 23, UNIFIL forces arrived
in Lebanon setting up headquarters in Naqoura. In response to Israel’s
invasion, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 425 and Resolution
426 calling for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon. The UN
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was created to enforce this mandate,
and restore peace and sovereignty to Lebanon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_South_Lebanon_conflict)
1978 Jun 13, Israelis withdrew the
last of their invading forces from Lebanon.
(HN, 6/13/98)
1978 Aug 13, In a Palestinian area
of Beirut, Lebanon, a bomb killed 100 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Aug 31, Imam Mousa
Sadr, the spiritual leader of Lebanon's Shiite Muslim community,
disappeared during a visit to Libya.
(AP,
9/3/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_al-Sadr)
1978 Oct 2, Syrian troops pounded
Christian districts of Beirut with heavy artillery and rocket fire
early today, and right-wing officials said Lebanese militias were
fighting back with every weapon they had.
(http://archive.gulfnews.com/indepth/30thyear/onthisday/10157571.html)
1979 Jan 22, Abu Hassan (Ali
Hassan Salameh), the alleged planner of the 1972 Munich raid, was
killed by a bomb in Beirut. He was the chief of operations for the
Black September militant Palestinian group.
(HN,
1/22/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Hassan_Salameh)
1979 Apr, Maj. Saad Haddad,
founder of the Army of Free Lebanon, proclaimed “independent free
Lebanon” near the Israeli border. Militiamen allied themselves with
Israel.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1980 Feb 4, Syria withdrew its
peacekeeping force in Beirut.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1980 Oct 25, Shafik Wazzan (d.
1999 at 74) became a compromise prime minister after the country had
gone 137 days without a government.
(SFC, 7/9/99, p.D6)
1981 Apr 2, Heavy battle took
place between Christian militia and Syrian army in East Lebanon.
Casualties and injuries were in the hundreds.
(www.2la.org/lebanon/ee/terrorlb.htm)
1982 Jun 4, Israel attacked
targets in south Lebanon one day after the attempted assassination of
the Israeli ambassador in London.
(www.adl.org/israel/advocacy/glossary/lebanon_war.asp)
1982 Jun 6, Israeli Defense
Minister Ariel Sharon ordered his forces to invade southern Lebanon to
drive Palestine Liberation Organization fighters out of the country.
Israeli Gen. Rafael Eitan (d.2004) had convinced defense minister Ariel
Sharon to invade southern Lebanon to clean out the PLO bases there. A
70-day siege by 30,000 Israeli troops left up to 14,000 Lebanese and
Palestinian civilians dead. Islamic radicals, including Naim Qassem,
formed Hezbollah (Hizbullah, i.e. Party of God) in response to Israel’s
attack. The Israelis withdrew in June 1985. Hezbollah was formed with
Iranian help as a radical offshoot of Amal, a Shiite Muslim movement.
In 2005 Naim Qassem authored “Hizbullah: The Story from Within.”
(WSJ, 11/17/95, p.A-10)(SFC, 4/17/96, p.A-10)(AP,
6/6/97)(SFC, 6/15/98, p.A10)(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)(Econ, 12/4/04,
p.88)(Econ, 4/23/05, p.79)
1982 Jul 4, Four Iranians, charge
d'affaires Mohsen Musavi, diplomat Ahmad Motovasselian, photographer
Kazem Akhavan and driver Mohammad Taqi Rastgar Moghaddam, were seized
at a Lebanese Forces checkpoint north of Beirut. In 2006 Samir Geagea,
former head of the disbanded Lebanese Forces, said that they were
killed by Christian militiamen.
(AP, 5/19/06)
1982 Jul 6, President Ronald
Reagan agreed to contribute U.S. troops to the peacekeeping unit in
Beirut.
(HN, 7/6/98)
1982 Aug 12, Israel staged heavy
bombardment of Beirut. The UN Security council expressed its most
serious concern about continued military activities in Lebanon,
particularly in and around Beirut.
(www.pierretristam.com/Bobst/Archives/CN072106.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/3ddtqm)
1982 Aug 21, A group of
Palestinian guerrillas left Lebanon by ship under an evacuation plan
mediated by the United States.
(AP, 8/21/02)
1982 Aug 23, Bashir Gemayel was
elected as Lebanon's President. His inauguration was scheduled for 23
September.
(http://tinyurl.com/2nba4o)
1982 Aug 24, Some 800 US Marines
landed in Beirut, Lebanon, as part of a joint US-French peacekeeping
force.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/usmnf.htm)
1982 Aug 30, Palestinian
Liberation Organization left Beirut, Lebanon, and moved to Tunis,
Tunisia. [see Aug 21]
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)
1982 Sep 1, The evacuation of the
PLO from Lebanon ended.
(www.mideastweb.org/timeline.htm)
1982 Sep 14, Lebanon's
president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, was killed by a bomb.
(AP, 9/14/97)
1982 Sep 15, The Israeli army
reoccupied Beirut.
(SFC, 5/24/00,
p.A15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre)
1982 Sep 16-1982 Sep 18, The
massacre of some 1,500 Palestinian men, women and children by Lebanese
Christian militiamen began in west Beirut's Sabra and Chatilla
(Shatilla) refugee camps. Elie Hobeika (d.2002), Christian militia
chieftain, led the massacre of Palestinian refugees in the camps.
Israel’s defense minister, Ariel Sharon, was held responsible and lost
his top post. The massacre triggered peace rallies in Israel with some
400,000 demonstrating in Tel Aviv. In 2001 survivors lodged a complaint
in Belgium against Sharon.
(AP, 9/16/97)(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)(SFC, 5/24/00,
p.A15)(SFC, 6/19/01, p.A8)(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 8/1/06, p.A10)
1982 Sep 21, Amin Gemayel, brother
of Lebanon's assassinated president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, was himself
elected president. He stayed in office until 1988.
(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A16)(AP,
9/21/02)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_Gemayel)
1982 Sep 24, US, Italian and
French peacekeeping troops began arriving in Lebanon. Some 400,000
Israelis gathered at the first of many demonstrations to protest the
Lebanon War.
(www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/usmnf.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/2o8vkl)
1982 The poet Khalil Hawi
committed suicide. His most celebrated poem was titled “The Bridge.” It
offered a hopeful vision for the Arab people, but the author was later
embarrassed by the poem’s optimism.
(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)
1982 Jacobo Timerman (d.1999 at
76) published "The Longest War: Israel in Lebanon."
(SFC, 11/12/99, p.D6)
1982 In 2005 Karin Linstad, a
leading Norwegian pro-Palestinian activist, said she infiltrated the
Israeli intelligence agency Mossad as a double agent in the 1980s. The
Oslo newspaper Aftenposten said Mossad had been skeptical of Linstad's
offer to act as an agent but was drawn in by her claims of tight
contact with leading Palestinians. The newspaper, without citing
sources, said she provided information about Palestinians in Beirut,
Lebanon, ahead of Israel's 1982 invasion.
(AP, 10/6/05)
1983 Apr 18, At the US Embassy in
Beirut, Lebanon, 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed by a
suicide bomber. In 1996 sixteen Islamic militants were ordered to stand
trial by a military court in Lebanon. Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyah
was suspected of involvement.
(WSJ, 3/26/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A14)(WSJ,
8/3/06, p.A4)(AP, 4/18/08)
1983 Aug 28, Israel’s PM Begin,
reportedly despondent over the death of his wife and the rising
casualty toll of Israeli troops in Lebanon, announced his intention to
resign as fighting continued in Lebanon with no apparent end in sight.
(www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3284684,00.html)(AP, 8/28/08)
1983 Oct 15, One US marine was
killed and another wounded when Marine positions at Beirut
International Airport came under sniper fire from neighboring Shiite
Moslem quarters.
(http://tinyurl.com/2oux37)
1983 Oct 23, A truck filled with
explosives, driven by a Moslem suicide terrorist, crashed into the U.S.
Marine barracks near the Beirut International Airport in Lebanon. The
bomb killed 241 Marines and sailors and injured 80. Almost
simultaneously, a similar incident occurred at French military
headquarters, where 58 died and 15 were injured. Hezbollah leader Imad
Mughniyah was suspected of involvement.
(WSJ, 8/1/96/p.B1)(AP, 10/23/97)(HN, 10/23/98)(WSJ,
9/19/01, p.A14)
1983 Nov 24, PLO exchanged 6
Israeli prisoners for 4,500 Palestinians and Lebanese.
(http://tinyurl.com/2lejkm)
1983 Dec 4, US jet fighters struck
Syrian anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon in retaliation for
Syrian-backed attacks on the US peacekeeping force. The Syrian anti-air
defense shut down two American airplanes and a pilot was captured. The
positions of the Marines at the Beirut International Airport were
bombarded. Eight Marines were killed.
(http://tinyurl.com/35ek6z)(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A8)
1983 Dec 20, PLO chairman Yasser
Arafat and 4,000 loyalists evacuated Lebanon.
(http://tinyurl.com/35ek6z)
1983 In Lebanon Fierce battles
raged between the Christian Maronite and Druze militias.
(SFC, 9/28/98, p.A8)
1984 Feb 26, Last US marines in
multinational peace-keeping force in Lebanon left Beirut.
(www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4791)
1984 Mar 12, Lebanese President
Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to
nine-years of war.
(HN, 3/12/98)
1984 Mar 16, William Buckley, the
CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen; he died in
captivity.
(AP, 3/16/97)
1984 Sep 20, A suicide car bomber
attacked the US Embassy annex in north Beirut. 24 people were killed
including 2 US soldiers.
(AP, 9/20/97)(SFC, 9/12/01,
p.A7)(http://beirut.usembassy.gov/lebanon/beirut_memorial.html)
1984 Salim Moussa Achi (b.1909),
aka Dr. Dahesh, Lebanese author and humanist, died. His art collection
later formed the core of the Dahesh Museum of Art in NYC.
(WSJ, 9/9/03, p.D6)(www.humanitiesweb.org)
1985 Jan 1, Mustafa Maarouf Saad
(d.2002), Lebanese militia leader, lost his sight in a car explosion in
front of his house in Sidon. His daughter (13) was killed and his wife
lost one eye.
(SFC, 8/3/02, p.A18)
1985 Jan, Israel pulled back to a
security zone in southern Lebanon to protect its border.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1985 Jan, Rev. Lawrence Martin
Jenco (1935-1996), the director of Catholic Relief Services, was
kidnapped by the Islamic Jihad in Beirut. He was freed in July 1986
after negotiations involving the Reagan administration, Shiite radicals
and Anglican envoy Terry White. In 1995 he wrote “Bound To Forgive- the
Pilgrimage to Reconciliation of a Beirut Hostage.” He shared captivity
with Terry Anderson, AP correspondent, David Jacobsen, administrator of
Beirut’s American Univ., and Thomas Sutherland, the Univ.'s acting dean
of agriculture.
(SFC, 7/20/96, p.A19)(SFC, 8/4/01, p.A3)
1985 Feb 14, Cable News Network
reporter Jeremy Levin, who was being held hostage by extremists in
Lebanon, was freed.
(AP, 2/14/98)
1985 Mar 16, Terry Anderson, chief
Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in
Beirut; he was released in December 1991.
(AP, 3/16/97) (HN, 3/16/98)
1985 May 22, In Lebanon Michel
Seurat, a French history researcher, was abducted. In 1986 the Islamic
Jihad said he had been executed.
(AP, 3/5/00)(AP, 3/7/06)
1985 May 28, David Jacobsen,
director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, was
abducted by pro-Iranian kidnappers. He was freed 17 months later.
(AP, 5/28/97)
1985 Jun 9, American educator
Thomas Sutherland was kidnapped in Lebanon. He was released in November
1991 along with fellow hostage Terry Waite.
(AP, 6/9/97)
1985 Jun 10, The Israeli army
pulled out of Lebanon after 1,099 days of occupation.
(HN, 6/10/98)
1985 Jun 14, The 17-day hijack
ordeal of TWA Flight 847 began as a pair of Lebanese Shiite Muslim
extremists seized the plane with 104 Americans shortly after takeoff
from Athens, Greece. The hijackers killed Petty Officer Robert Dean
Stethem and dumped his body on the tarmac in Beirut. In 2002 Stethem’s
family was awarded $21.4 million in compensatory damages from the US
Treasury. In 1987 Mohammed Ali Hamadi was arrested at the Frankfurt
airport, when customs officials discovered liquid explosives in his
luggage. The Lebanese man was convicted and served a life sentence in
Germany for the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of a US
Navy diver. In 2005 he returned to Lebanon after being paroled in
Germany.
(AP, 6/14/97)(HN, 6/14/98)(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A9)(AP,
12/20/05)
1985 Jun 30, 39 American hostages
from a hijacked TWA jetliner were freed in Beirut after being held for
17 days.
(AP 6/30/97)
1985 Jun, Israel pulled back to a
security zone in southern Lebanon to protect its border.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1985 Sep 14, Shiite Muslim
kidnappers in Lebanon released the Rev. Benjamin Weir after holding him
captive for 16 months.
(AP, 9/14/05)
1985 Oct 4, Islamic Jihad issued a
statement saying it had killed American hostage William Buckley. Fellow
hostage David Jacobsen, however, later said he believed Buckley had
died (in Lebanon) of torture injuries four months earlier.
(AP, 10/4/97)
1985 Dec 28, A Syrian sponsored
peace agreement was signed in Damascus between warring Lebanese Moslem
and Christian leaders.
(www.lebanese-forces.org/lebanon/agreements/damascus85.htm)
1985 Israel established a 440 sq.
mile security zone in southern Lebanon. The 9-mile wide zone was
abandoned by some 400,000 inhabitants and by 2000 only 100,000
remained.
(SFC, 4/18/96, p.a-14)(SFC, 3/10/00, p.A12)
1985-1991 Mustafa Maarouf Saad (d.2002) headed the
Popular Liberation Army, a militia of Lebanese Muslims allied with the
Palestinian guerrillas.
(SFC, 8/3/02, p.A18)
1986 Mar 5, In Lebanon Islamic
Jihad issued a statement saying it had "executed" Michel Seurat, a
French history researcher, who had been abducted May 22, 1985. His
remains were found in 2006.
(AP, 3/5/00)(AP, 3/7/06)
1986 Mar 8, Four French television
crew members were abducted in west Beirut; a caller claimed the Islamic
Jihad was responsible. All four were eventually released.
(AP, 3/8/98)
1986 Apr 17, The bodies of
American librarian Peter Kilburn and two Britons were found near
Beirut; the three hostages had been slain in apparent retaliation for
the U.S. raid on Libya.
(AP, 4/17/97)
1986 Jun 3, In Beirut, Lebanon,
Shiite Moslem militiamen clashed in separate battles with Palestinians
and a pro-Palestinian Sunni Moslem faction. 53 people were killed.
(http://tinyurl.com/ygh5ls)
1986 Jul 26, Kidnappers in Lebanon
released the Reverend Lawrence Martin Jenco, an American hostage held
for nearly 19 months.
(AP, 7/26/00)
1986 Sep. 9, Frank Reed, director
of a private school in Lebanon, was taken hostage; he was released 44
months later.
(AP, 9/9/97)
1986 Sep 12, Joseph Cicippio, the
acting comptroller at the American University in Beirut, was kidnapped;
he was released in December 1991.
(AP, 9/12/97)
1986 Oct 16, Ron Arad, an Israeli
airman, was the navigator in a plane that was shot down while bombing a
Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. He was reportedly handed
over to a Lebanese Shiite group led by Mustafa Dirani. In 2004 it was
reported that Arad died in 1996 , sometime after he was handed by
Lebanese fighters to their Iranian sponsors. In 2008 a Hezbollah report
said Arad had escaped from a holding cell in 1988 and probably died
while trying to make his way home through difficult terrain.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.A14)(AP,
10/25/04)(http://tinyurl.com/yz3zza)(AP, 10/8/08)
1986 Oct 21, Pro-Iranian
kidnappers in Lebanon claimed to have abducted American Edward Tracy.
He was released in August 1991.
(AP, 10/21/97)
1986 Nov 2, Kidnappers in Lebanon
released American hospital administrator David Jacobsen after holding
him for 17 months.
(AP, 11/2/06)
1986 Nov 3, "Ash-Shiraa," a
pro-Syrian Lebanese magazine, broke the story of U.S. arms sales to
Iran, a revelation that escalated into the Iran-Contra affair.
(AP, 11/3/97)
1986 Nov 10, Camille Sontag and
Marcel Coudari, two Frenchmen who had been held hostage in Lebanon,
were released.
(AP, 11/10/06)
1986 Nov 13, President Reagan
publicly acknowledged that the US had sent "defensive weapons and spare
parts" to Iran in an attempt to improve relations, but denied the
shipments were part of a deal aimed at freeing hostages in Lebanon.
(AP, 11/13/06)
1987 Jan 12, Anglican Church envoy
Terry Waite arrived in Lebanon on his latest mission to win the release
of Western hostages; however, Waite ended up being taken captive
himself.
(AP, 1/12/07)
1987 Jan 20, Anglican Church envoy
Terry Waite disappeared in Beirut, Lebanon, while attempting to
negotiate the release of Western hostages. He was freed in November
1991.
(AP, 1/20/98)
1987 Jan 24, Gunmen in Lebanon
kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and
Mitheleshwar Singh. All were later released.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1987 Jun 1, In Lebanon PM Rachid
Karami was killed by a remote controlled bomb that blew up his
helicopter off the Lebanese coast. In 1996 former Christian faction
leader Samir Geagea was charged for the murder. In 2005 lawmakers
approved motions to pardon Geagea.
(SFC, 7/19/05,
p.A9)(www.tripoli-lebanon.com/rachid-karami.html)
1987 Jun 17, Charles Glass, a
journalist on leave from ABC News, was kidnapped in Lebanon. Glass
escaped his captors in August 1987.
(AP, 6/17/07)
1987 Jul 23, Hussein Hariri (21),
a Lebanese hijacker, commandeered an Air Afrique DC-10 flying from
Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, to Paris. He was captured during a
refueling stop in Geneva and was sentenced to life in prison for
killing a passenger and seriously wounding a flight attendant. In 2004
he was released and deported to Lebanon.
(AP, 10/17/04)
1987 Aug 18, American journalist
Charles Glass escaped his kidnappers in Beirut after 62 days in
captivity. Glass had been abducted June 17 with two Lebanese who were
released after a week.
(AP, 8/18/97)
1987 Sep. 5, Some four-dozen
people were killed in an Israeli air raid on targets near the southern
Lebanese port town of Sidon.
(AP, 9/5/97)
1987 Nov 14, A bomb hidden in a
box of chocolates exploded in the lobby of Beirut's American University
Hospital, killing seven people, including the woman who was carrying
it.
(AP, 11/14/97)
1987 Nov 27, French hostages
Jean-Louis Normandin and Roger Auque were freed by their pro-Iranian
captors in west Beirut, Lebanon.
(AP, 11/27/97)
1987 Dec 24, In Lebanon, the
kidnappers of Terry Anderson released a videotape in which The
Associated Press correspondent told his family he was in good health,
and said to President Reagan, "Surely by now you know what must be done
and how you can do it." Anderson was freed nearly four years later.
(AP, 12/24/97)
1987 The Lebanese Free Forces, a
right-wing Christian militia, arranged to accept and store 15,800
barrels and 20 large containers of toxic chemicals from the Italian
firm Jelly Wax in exchange for cash. Later German, Canadian and Belgium
firms shipped in toxic chemicals for storage. By 1998 70% of the
country’s drinking water sources was contaminated.
(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A10)(SFC, 9/30/98, p.A10)
1987 Syria sent troops into West
Beirut to enforce a cease-fire.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A8)
1988 Jan 3, The Israeli Army
ordered nine Palestinian activists deported from West Beirut as part of
a controversial crackdown to stop the uprising in the occupied
territories. Israeli raids on Palestinian and Progressive Socialist
Party positions in the region of Saida make killed 21 persons and
wounded 11.
(AP, 1/3/98)(http://tinyurl.com/zz87m)
1988 Feb 17, Lt. Col. William
Higgins, an American officer serving with a United Nations truce
monitoring group, was kidnapped in southern Lebanon. He was later slain
by his captors.
(AP, 2/17/98)
1988 Feb 19, A group calling
itself the "Organization of the Oppressed on Earth" claimed
responsibility for the kidnapping in Lebanon of U.S. Marine Lt. Col.
William R. Higgins. Higgins was later slain by his captors.
(AP, 2/19/98)
1988 Oct 3, Lebanese kidnappers
released Indian educator Mithileshwar Singh, who'd been held captive
with three Americans for more than 20 months.
(AP, 10/3/98)
1988 Oct 4, Indian professor
Mithileshwar Singh, freed the day before by his Lebanese kidnappers,
said his captors had treated him well during his 20 months of
imprisonment, but acknowledged "there is no substitute for freedom."
(AP, 10/4/98)
1988 Oct 19, Eight Israeli
soldiers were killed in a suicide car bomb attack in south Lebanon.
(AP, 10/19/98)
1988 Oct 31, In Lebanon the
kidnappers of American hostage Terry Anderson released a videotape in
which The Associated Press correspondent accused the Reagan
administration of blocking his release.
(AP, 10/31/98)
1988 Dec 20, The International
Committee of the Red Cross suspended its operations in Lebanon after
receiving death threats.
(AP, 12/20/98)
1988 Outgoing Pres. Amin Gemayel
appointed Lebanese army commander Gen. Michel Aoun as interim prime
minister.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A8)
1989 Mar 8, In Lebanon daily
artillery barrages between Christian and Syrian forces and their
militia allies began in Beirut; at least 930 people were killed before
a cease-fire took hold the following September.
(AP, 3/8/99)
1989 Mar 19, Muslim gunners fire
rockets into Christian areas of Lebanon.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1989 Apr 16, Spain's ambassador to
Lebanon (Pedro Manuel de Aristegui) was killed by shellfire that broke
out between Christian militiamen and an alliance of Syrian and Muslim
gunners.
(AP, 4/16/99)
1989 Jul 28, Israeli commandos
abducted a pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim Hezbollah cleric, Sheik
Abdul-Karim Obeid, from his home in south Lebanon.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.A14)(AP, 7/28/99)
1989 Jul 30, In Lebanon, the
pro-Iranian group Organization for the Oppressed on Earth threatened to
kill an American hostage, Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, unless
Israel released Sheik Abdul-Karim Obeid, a cleric seized by Israeli
commandos.
(AP, 7/30/99)
1989 Jul 31, A pro-Iranian group
in Lebanon released a grisly videotape purportedly showing the body of
American hostage William R. Higgins dangling from a rope, a day after
his kidnappers threatened to kill him.
(AP, 7/31/99)
1989 Aug 1, The Revolutionary
Justice Organization, a pro-Iranian group in Lebanon which had
threatened to kill American hostage Joseph Cicippio, extended its
deadline a day after another group released a videotape showing a body
said to be that of hostage William R. Higgins.
(AP, 8/1/99)
1989 Aug 3, Shiite Muslim
kidnappers in Lebanon suspended their threat to execute another
American hostage, three days after the purported hanging of Lt. Col.
William R. Higgins.
(AP, 8/2/99)
1989 Oct 4, Fawaz Younis, a
Lebanese hijacker convicted of commandeering a Jordanian jetliner in
1985 with two Americans aboard, was sentenced in Washington to 30 years
in prison.
(AP, 10/4/99)
1989 Oct 22, The Lebanese
parliament agreed on a power-sharing formula between Christians and
Muslims that ended civil war a year later.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1989 Nov 22, President Rene Moawad
of Lebanon was assassinated less than three weeks after taking office.
(AP, 11/22/99)
1989 Rafik Hariri financed a
gathering of Lebanese politicians at the Saudi city of Taif to hammer
out a deal to disband militias and distribute power more equitably. The
Taif Agreement maintained sectarian divisions in government and led to
the end of the civil war. It stipulated that Syria withdraw its troops
to the border and leave within 2 years.
(SFC, 9/28/98, p.A10)(SFC, 4/4/02, p.A13)(Econ,
2/19/05, p.43)
1989 In Lebanon PM Michel Aoun
waged a “war of liberation” against Syrian forces. Pro-Syrian
legislator Elias Hrawi was elected president.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A8)
1990 Jan 19, Elias Zayek, leader
of the Christian Phalange party of Lebanon was shot and killed in
Byblos. Samir Geagea, leader of the of the Lebanese Forces militia, was
later accused and convicted (5/20/96) of the murder.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-11)
1990 Apr 10, Three European
hostages -- a French woman, a Belgian man and their two-year-old
daughter, who was born in captivity -- were released in Lebanon by the
Abu Nidal Palestinian guerrilla group following an appeal by Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi.
(AP, 4/10/00)
1990 Apr 22, Pro-Iranian
kidnappers in Lebanon freed American hostage Robert Polhill after
nearly 39 months of captivity.
(AP, 4/22/00)
1990 Apr 30, Hostage Frank Reed
was released by his captives in Lebanon, the second American freed in
eight days.
(AP, 4/30/00)
1990 Aug 24, Irish hostage Brian
Keenan was released by his captors in Lebanon after being held more
than four years.
(AP, 8/24/00)
1990 Oct 13, In Lebanon, rebel
Christian General Michel Aoun ended his mutiny against the government.
Syrian forces defeated the army under Aoun.
(AP, 10/13/00)(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A8)
1990 The Lebanese constitution was
amended in accordance with the 1989 Taif Accord to end the Christian’s
majority status in Parliament.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A16)
1990 In Lebanon Al-Manar was
founded to give voice to Hezbollah the Shiites. In 1997 Al-Manar
Television received a broadcasting license from the Lebanese
government. In 2004 the US designated it as a terrorist entity.
(WSJ, 7/28/06, p.A1)
1991 Jul 18, Shiite Muslim
kidnappers in Lebanon demanded the release of two Lebanese brothers
being held in Germany, warning there could be “grave consequences.”
(AP, 7/18/01)
1991 Jul 20, Lebanon joined Syria
in agreeing to participate in Mideast peace talks with Israel.
(AP, 7/20/01)
1991 Aug 8, Lebanese kidnappers
freed British TV producer John McCarthy, held hostage for more than
five years; however, a rival group abducted Frenchman Jerome Leyraud,
threatening to kill him if any more hostages were released Leyraud was
freed three days later.
(AP, 8/8/01)
1991 Aug 10, The Revolutionary
Justice Organization, one of the groups holding hostages in Lebanon,
announced it would release an American within 72 hours. The next day,
Edward Tracy was freed.
(AP, 8/10/01)
1991 Aug 11, Shiite Muslim
kidnappers in Lebanon released two Western captives: Edward Tracy, an
American held nearly five years, and Jerome Leyraud, a Frenchman who
had been abducted by a rival group three days earlier.
(AP, 8/11/97)
1991 Aug 12, A letter from
Lebanese kidnappers was made public; it offered to trade the release of
Western hostages for the freedom of “all detainees” worldwide.
(AP, 8/12/01)
1991 Sep 11, In the Middle East
hopes grew for the release of Western hostages in Lebanon after Israel
freed 51 prisoners.
(AP, 9/11/01)
1991 Sep 24, Kidnappers in Lebanon
freed British hostage Jack Mann after holding him captive for more than
two years.
(AP, 9/24/97)
1991 Oct 6, Cable News Network
obtained and aired a videotape made in Beirut, Lebanon, of American
hostage Terry Anderson, who quoted his captors as saying they would
have “very good news.”
(AP, 10/6/01)
1991 Oct 21, American hostage
Jesse Turner was freed by his kidnappers in Lebanon after nearly five
years in captivity.
(AP, 10/21/97)
1991 Nov 18, Shiite Muslim
kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and
Thomas Sutherland, the American dean of agriculture at the American
University of Beirut.
(AP, 11/18/01)
1991 Dec 1, Kidnappers in Lebanon
pledged to release American hostage Joseph Cicippio within 48 hours.
(AP, 12/1/01)
1991 Dec 2, American hostage
Joseph Cicippio, held captive in Lebanon for more than five years, was
released.
(AP, 12/2/97)
1991 Dec 3, Radicals in Lebanon
released American hostage Alann Steen, who had been held captive nearly
five years.
(AP, 12/3/97)
1991 Dec 4, Associated Press
correspondent Terry Anderson, the longest held of Western hostages in
Lebanon, was released after nearly seven years in captivity. The last
American hostages in Lebanon were released.
(TMC, 1994, p.1991)(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A3)(AP,
12/4/97)(HN, 12/4/01)
1991 Dec 22, The body of Lt. Col.
William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, was
found dumped along a highway in Lebanon.
(AP, 12/22/97)
1991 Dec 30, The remains of two
American hostages slain in Lebanon, William Buckley and Marine Col.
William R. Higgins, arrived in the United States for burial.
(AP, 12/30/01)
1991 In Lebanon Pres. Hrawi signed
the “Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination” with Syrian
Pres. Hafez Assad. It formalized the intervention of Syria.
(SFC, 6/2/00, p.A16)(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A8)
1991 The civil war in Lebanon
ended.
(SFC, 9/28/98, p.A8)
1992 Feb 16, Israeli helicopters
attacked a convoy in Sidon, Lebanon, killing Sheik Abbas Musawi, leader
of the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah (b.1960)
took over Hezbollah after the Israeli assassination of Sheik Abbas
Musawi. He has led the group since, controlling its operational
activities.
(AP, 2/16/02)(AP, 6/3/06)
1992 Jun 16, Two German relief
workers, the last of Western hostages held in Lebanon, were released.
(AP, 6/17/97)
1992 Jul 23, US Secretary of State
James A. Baker III, touring the Middle East, made a secret visit to
Lebanon.
(AP, 7/23/02)
1992 Dec 13, An Israeli border
guard was kidnapped near Tel Aviv and later killed by the Hamas
fundamentalist organization. The slaying prompted Israel to expel
hundreds of Palestinians, sending them into Lebanese territory.
(AP, 12/13/97)
1992 Dec 19, More than 400
suspected Muslim fundamentalists deported by Israel were confined to a
makeshift refugee camp in a "no man's land" in Lebanon because of the
Lebanese government's refusal to accept them.
(AP, 12/19/97)
1992 Rafik Hariri, billionaire
businessman, led the reconstruction of Lebanon after taking office as
Prime Minister. He hired a Cairo-based engineering firm to design a
world-class financial center and a new airport.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-8)(WSJ, 4/6/98, p.A1)
1993 Jan 9, Two Red Cross
officials visited a camp of Palestinians who had been deported by
Israel to a no man's land in southern Lebanon.
(AP, 1/9/03)
1993 Jul 25, Israel launched its
heaviest artillery and air assault on Lebanon since 1982 in an attempt
to eradicate Hezbollah and Palestinian guerrilla threats. Guerrillas
fired rockets into Israel. The fighting ended July 31 with a
U.S.-brokered cease-fire. Israel and Hezbollah then agreed not to
attack civilian targets, but the cease-fire was short lived.
(AP, 7/25/98)(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1993 Jul 27, Israeli guns and
aircraft pounded southern Lebanon in reprisal for rocket attacks by
Hezbollah guerrillas.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1993 Amin Maalouf (b.1949),
Lebanese writer, won France’s Prix Goncourt for his novel “The Rock of
Tanios.”
(Econ, 7/5/08, p.91)
1994 Feb 27, A Maronite church
near Beirut was bombed and 10 people were killed.
(www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/mar/data/lebchstchro.htm)
1994 May 21, Israeli commandos
swept into Lebanon’s eastern mountains and abducted Mustafa Dirani, a
Shiite Muslim guerrilla leader of the Believer's Resistance. In 2000
Dirani sued Israel with charges of torture and sodomy. Dirani was
released in Jan 2004, as part of a complex prisoner exchange between
Hezbollah and Israel.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.A14)(SFC, 3/14/00, p.A10)(AP,
5/21/04)
1994 Jun, An Israeli helicopter
gunship at Ein Darbara killed at least 30 Hezbollah trainees.
(SFC, 12/5/96, p.C5)
1994 Mohammed Mehdi Shamseddine
(d.2001 at 67) was elected spiritual leader of Lebanon’s 1.2 million
Shiite Muslims. His life’s work included 25 books on Islamic issues.
(SFC, 1/16/01, p.C4)
1995 Nov, Lebanese guerrillas of
the Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel. Israeli warplanes
retaliated by hitting rebel strongholds. Hezbollah or Party of God is
the Iranian-backed political and military group that is fighting to
dislodge Israeli soldiers from southern Lebanon.
(WSJ, 11/29/95, p.A1)(SFC, 4/14/96, p.1)
1996 Mar 10, Hezbollah guerrillas
launched a wave of bomb and rocket attacks on Israeli troops in south
Lebanon.
(AP, 3/10/01)
1996 Mar 30, Hezbollah guerillas
fired 30 Katyusha rockets across the Lebanon border into northern
Israel. Israel responded by shelling 15 Shiite Muslim villages. Israel
contended that responsibility for the attacks lies with Lebanon and
Syria, which occupies Lebanon with 35,000 troops and exercises dominion
over government decisions.
(WSJ, 4/1/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 4/14/96, p.A-10)
1996 Apr 11, Israeli aircraft
attacked a Hezbollah command center in Beirut in retaliation for recent
rocket attacks on northern Israel.
(WSJ, 4/12/96, p.A-1)
1996 Apr 13, In Lebanon Hezbollah
(Hizbullah) leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah warned of retaliation
following an Israeli aircraft attack.
(SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-8)(Econ, 3/12/05, p.47)
1996 Apr 18, A base at Qana,
Lebanon, manned by Fijian UNIFIL troops was shelled by Israel and led
to 75 (revised to 106) civilian deaths. A later UN investigation found
the remains of 15 Israeli shells that indicated a targeted assault.
Israel called the attack an "unfortunate mistake."
(WSJ, 4/19/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-8)(AP,
4/18/97)(AP, 7/26/06)
1996 Apr 22, After 11 days of
focusing on Hezbollah guerrillas, Israeli warplanes turned to a new
target in Lebanon, attacking the heavily fortified base of the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
(AP, 4/22/97)
1996 Apr 25, US Sec. of State
Warren Christopher helped produce a cease-fire between Israel and the
Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon. In the “April Understanding” Israel,
Lebanon, France, Syria and the US agreed that Lebanese and Israeli
civilians would not be targeted in Hezbollah’s drive to end Israel’s
occupation.
(WSJ, 5/6/96, p.A-13)(SFC, 7/31/06, p.A7)
1996 Apr 27, Tens of thousands of
refugees streamed home to southern Lebanon after a U.S.-brokered
cease-fire silenced the guns in the 16-day Israel-Hezbollah war. The
World Bank, which had committed $300 million to rebuilding Lebanon,
will consider if more money is needed after the Israeli blitz.
(SFC, 5/4/96, P.A-8)(AP, 4/27/97)
1996 May 3, A preliminary UN
report says that Israel fired knowingly on a southern Lebanon UN
compound on April 18 after pro-Iranian guerrillas sought refuge in the
area.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-8)
1996 May 31, Israeli warplanes
attacked a Hezbollah base in eastern Lebanon in retaliation for an
ambush that killed four Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.
(SFC, 5/31/96, A16)
1996 Jun 10, Hezbollah guerrillas
killed 5 Israeli soldiers and wounded 6 in a dawn ambush in south
Lebanon.
(SFC, 6/10/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 12, Israel lost 12
commandos in southern Lebanon.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
1996 Nov 28, Demonstrations
against Prime Minister Hariri’s handling of the economy were broken up
with tanks and troops in Beirut.
(WSJ, 11/29/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec 16, The US, EU and other
countries agreed to a package of economic and military assistance worth
$2.2 billion. The US said that its aid would increase to more than $20
million next year.
(SFC, 12/17/96, p.B3)
1997 Feb, Lebanon detained 5
members of the Japanese Red Army.
(SFC, 11/9/00, p.C2)
1997 Mar, Lebanon granted Kozo
Okamoto, Japanese Red Army member, political asylum and deported 4
others to Japan. [see Jun 9]
(SFC, 11/9/00, p.C2)
1997 Jun 9, Five Japanese Red Army
guerillas went on trial on charges of passport forgery and illegal
entry. The light charges prevented their extradition to Japan. [see Mar]
(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A16)
1997 Jul 30, The US lifted a
12-year ban on US citizens visits to Lebanon.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 8, Fighting broke out on
the Israel-Lebanon border when guerrillas fired rockets into northern
Israel and Israeli warplanes struck back. 13 people have died since Aug
4 when Israeli commandos set off bombs behind the front line killing 3
guerrilla field commanders and 2 fighters.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 18, Militiamen under the
South Lebanon Army, a key ally of Israel, shelled the port city of
Sidon and killed at least 6 people while injuring over 3 dozen. In
apparent retaliation northern Israel was hit by dozens of Katyusha
rockets fired from Lebanon.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A8)
1997 Aug 20, Israeli jets struck
deep in Lebanon and bombed a guerrilla base and a power plant supplying
electricity to Sidon.
(WSJ, 8/21/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 28, Four Israeli soldiers
were killed in a fire caused by strafing from Israeli helicopters in
southern Lebanon in a battle where 4 Amal guerrillas were also killed.
(WSJ, 8/29/97, p.A1)
1997 Sep 4 [5], In Lebanon at
least 12 Israeli commandos were killed in a botched raid deep inside
Lebanese territory. Itamar Ilya, a commando, was killed with 11 other
soldiers in Southern Lebanon.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A1)(SFC, 6/26/98, p.A16)
1997 Sep 13, In Lebanon six
soldiers were killed in a rocket attack by Israeli helicopters.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A22)
1997 Sep 14, Two Israeli soldiers
were killed in a Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon.
(WSJ, 9/15/97, p.A1)
1997 Oct 8, Two Israeli soldiers
were killed in an ambush. The total for the year thus reached 37.
(SFC, 10/10/97, p.D2)
1997 Nov 23, Artillery shells
fired by Lebanese guerrillas accidentally struck a village near the
Israeli border, killing 9 Lebanese. Israel blamed Hezbollah for
shelling the Shiite village of Beit Lif in an artillery duel.
(WSJ, 11/24/97, p.A1)(SFC,11/25/97, p.A12)(AP,
11/23/07)
1997 Nov 24, Israeli warplanes and
soldiers attacked supposed guerilla infiltration trails in southern
Lebanon. Three Hezbollah were reported killed.
(SFC,11/25/97, p.A12)
1997 Dec 18, A foundation stone
was laid for the new US consulate in Beirut.
(SFC,12/19/97, p.B3)
1998 Jan 30, The army clashed with
supporters of Sheikh Sobhi Tufaili in Baalbek and at least 50 people
were killed. Tufaili had been expelled a week earlier from the Muslim
fundamentalist Hezbollah.
(SFEC, 2/1/98, p.A21)
1998 Feb 4, It was reported that
the 300,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon in refugee camps were barred
from work outside the camps except for common labor or agriculture. The
refugees, mostly Sunni Muslims from a minority tribe, were not wanted
by the Lebanese.
(SFC, 2/4/98, p.C2)
1998 Feb 20, The book “The Dream
Palace of the Arabs” by Fouad Ajami (b.1945 in Lebanon) describes the
emergence and collapse of the Arab enlightenment following WW I.
(WSJ, 2/20/98, p.A16)
1998 Feb 26, Three Israeli
soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack in southern Lebanon.
(WSJ, 2/27/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 31, A roadside bomb in
the Israeli security zone killed 6 construction workers in their pickup
truck near Kaoukaba.
(SFC, 4/1/98, p.A10)
1998 Apr 1, Israel accepted the
1978 UN Resolution 425 for withdrawal from the south of Lebanon.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A12)
1998 May 13, Israeli jets raided
Lebanon and killed 3 men and wounded 21 in an attack on the radical
Palestinian group, Fatah the Uprising. As many as 10 men were killed in
a Bekaa Valley training camp for Palestinian guerrillas.
(SFC, 5/13/98, p.A13)(SFC, 5/14/98, p.C2)
1998 May 25, Opposition groups
made gains in the first elections in 35 years. The first stage of the
poll was in the Mount Lebanon governate.
(SFC, 5/26/98, p.A8)
1998 Jun 25, Two Israeli soldiers
were killed in southern Lebanon by a roadside bomb and seriously
wounded 3. Meanwhile the government traded the corpses of 40 Lebanese
guerrillas and the release of 60 Lebanese prisoners for the body of
Itamar Ilya, a commando killed on Sep 5, 1997.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 25, Israel fired a rocket
from a helicopter into Lebanon that killed guerrilla leader Hossam
al-Amin. Lebanese guerrillas then fired Katyusha rockets into Israel
and injured at least 19 civilians.
(SFC, 8/26/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 5, In south Lebanon
pro-Iranian Hezbollah guerrillas killed 2 Israeli soldiers with a
roadside bomb.
(SFC, 10/6/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 6, Syria anointed army
chief Emile Lahoud, a Maronite Christian, as Lebanon’s president.
(WSJ, 10/7/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D2)
1998 Oct 15, The parliament
approved Gen’l. Emile Lahoud as president.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D2)
1998 Nov 16, In southern Lebanon 3
Israeli soldiers were killed when Hezbollah detonated a road bomb.
(WSJ, 11/17/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 20, Israel carried out
its 100th air raid along with ground attacks in southern Lebanon. One
Amal fighter was reported killed.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Nov 24, Pres. Elias Hrawi was
scheduled to step down and be replaced by Emile Lahoud. Emile Lahoud
was sworn in as president.
(SFC, 10/16/98, p.D2) (WSJ, 11/25/98, p.A1)
1998 Nov 26, In southern Lebanon 2
Israeli soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb blew up their armored
vehicle.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 22, In Lebanon an Israeli
rocket killed woman and her 6 children.
(SFC, 12/23/98, p.C2)
1998 Dec 23, In Lebanon Hezbollah
guerrillas retaliated against Israel with Katyusha rockets at Kiryat
Shemona. 16 Israelis were injured.
(SFC, 12/24/98, p.A10)
1998 Dec 29, In Lebanon the
Israeli army assassinated Zahi Naim Hadr Ahmed Mahabi, a top Hezbollah
explosives expert.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.C12)
1998 Rafik Hariri resigned as
prime minister.
(SFC, 9/5/00, p.A10)
1998 Shiite Muslims made up 34% of
the 3 million population, Sunni Muslims accounted for 21%, Christians
made up 37.6% and Druze (a secret religion related to Islam) made up
7.1%.
(SFC, 9/28/98, p.A10)
1999 Jan 3, Israeli warplanes
attacked Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon and wounded 6 people
including a woman (55) and her 4 daughters.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A22)
1999 Feb 18, Israeli troops seized
the southern Lebanon village of Arnoun to prevent guerrilla attacks
from the Crusader Castle of Beaufort.
(WSJ, 2/19/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 23, In Lebanon Hezbollah
guerrillas ambushed an Israeli commando squad and killed the commander
and 2 officers.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.C3)
1999 Feb 27, Hezbollah guerrillas
in Lebanon detonated 2 roadside bombs and killed Israeli Brig. Gen'l.
Erez Gerstein, 2 soldiers and a reporter.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 28, Israel sent warplanes
against guerrilla targets in Lebanon in retaliation for the death of
Brig. Gen'l. Erez Gerstein and 3 others.
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 2, Israeli leaders made
campaign promises to leave Lebanon within a year.
(SFC, 3/3/99, p.A10)
1999 Apr 12, In southern Lebanon
guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb and killed one Israeli soldier and
wounded 2 others. The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah claimed responsibility
and announced that Israeli troops had killed one its fighters hours
earlier.
(SFC, 4/13/99, p.A11)
1999 May 4, In Lebanon a roadside
bomb killed 2 Israeli-backed militiamen. Hezbollah claimed
responsibility.
(WSJ, 5/5/99, p.A1)
1999 May 13, In Lebanon a roadside
bomb killed a child, 2 women and a pro-Israeli militia officer. The
bomb was believed to have been detonated by Hezbollah guerrillas.
Separately Israeli planes killed 2 men as they struck back for an
overnight attack by guerrillas on Israeli-occupied territory that left
1 civilian dead and 4 injured.
(SFC, 5/14/99, p.A15)
1999 Jun 1, In Lebanon an Israeli
supported militia withdrew from a strategic position in South Lebanon.
(SFC, 6/2/99, p.A11)
1999 Jun 8, In Lebanon 3 judges
were killed along with a prosecutor in Sidon.
(WSJ, 6/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 9, In southern Lebanon
guerrillas ambushed an Israeli military patrol and killed 2 soldiers.
This prompted Israeli airstrikes.
(SFC, 6/10/99, p.C3)
1999 Jun 24, Israel bombed Lebanon
in retaliation for Katyusha rocked attacks on northern Israel. 2
Israelis and 7 Lebanese were reported killed. Israeli bombing blacked
out Beirut, killed 9 Lebanese and wounded as many as 57 people.
(SFC, 6/25/99, p.A10)(SFC, 6/26/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 8, In southern Lebanon
Israeli warplanes bombed suspected rebel positions after
Hezbollah guerrillas struck an Israeli outpost at Blatt.
(SFC, 8/9/99, p.A10)
1999 Aug 16, Abu Hassan, a
Hezbollah commander, was killed by a roadside bomb in Sidon. Guerrillas
blamed the attack on Israel.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A8)
1999 Aug 17, In southern Lebanon
Hezbollah guerrillas killed 2 Israeli soldiers and wounded 4 others in
a revenge clash that left 1 guerrilla dead.
(SFC, 8/18/99, p.A12)
1999 Sep 1, Israeli shelling in
southern Lebanon left 2 Lebanese civilians dead after a roadside bomb
killed 2 Israeli-allied militiamen.
(SFC, 9/2/99, p.A16)
1999 Oct 29, In Lebanon Israeli
warplanes and artillery blasted the southern region after Guerrilla
attacks killed 2 Israeli-allied militiamen.
(SFC, 10/30/99, p.A13)
1999 Nov 1, In Lebanon Israeli
warplanes fired some 2 dozen missiles at 6 Hezbollah targets in the
mountains of Iqlim al-Tuffah.
(SFC, 11/2/99, p.A14)
1999 Nov 2, Israel resumed attacks
against Lebanon with 5 missiles at mountain targets at Jabal al-Daher.
(SFC, 11/3/99, p.C5)
1999 Dec 16, In Lebanon shelling
by the Israeli allied South Lebanon Army his an elementary school and
20 children were wounded.
(SFC, 12/17/99, p.D8)
1999 Dec 31, In Lebanon Muslim
militants ambushed an army patrol and killed 4 soldiers with 3 wounded
in Diniyah. A kidnapped soldier was found dead the next day and a
kidnapped Lt. Col. Was missing.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.A27)
2000 Jan 3, In Beirut, Lebanon,
assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at the Russian Embassy. One
police officer and one attacker were killed. In northern Lebanon Muslim
militants killed 4 soldiers and 3 hostages.
(SFC, 1/4/00, p.A10,12)
2000 Jan 21, Saeb Salam, former 5
time prime minister, died at age 95.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A21)
2000 Jan 30, In Lebanon Col. Akl
Hashem, 2nd in command of the Israeli-backed South Lebanese Army, was
killed in a Hezbollah bomb at his home attack in Dibel village.
(SFC, 1/31/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 31, In southern Lebanon a
Hezbollah rocket attack killed 3 Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A13)
2000 Feb 2, In southern Lebanon a
roadside bomb killed one man and injured 2 Israeli militiamen.
(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A13)
2000 Feb 4, In southern Lebanon
Israeli forces attacked targets for the 7th straight day. A guerrilla
commander and 7 civilians were killed.
(SFC, 2/5/00, p.A11)
2000 Feb 6, In southern Lebanon a
roadside bomb and attack killed one Israeli soldier and injured 7
others.
(SFC, 2/7/00, p.A14)
2000 Feb 7, Israeli jets launched
air attacks deep into Lebanon. Power was knocked out at Baalbek,
headquarters of the Hezbollah, and at Beirut and Tripoli. 18 civilians
were injured.
(SFC, 2/8/00, p.A12)
2000 Feb 8, In Lebanon Hezbollah
guerrillas killed another Israeli soldier and Israeli warplanes
retaliated with attacks on Tyre and Iqlim al-Tuffah.
(SFC, 2/9/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 9, Israeli jets struck
targets in southern Lebanon for the 11th day and Foreign Minister David
Levy threatened that it would set Lebanon on fire if militants
retaliated with rockets.
(SFC, 2/10/00, p.A10)
2000 Feb 10, Israeli jets fired 20
missiles in 8 raids in the Zillaya Valley following Hezbollah attacks
on Israeli troops and militia.
(SFC, 2/11/00, p.A14)
2000 Feb 11, In Lebanon Hezbollah
launched another rocket attack that killed an Israeli soldier. Israel
responded with warplanes and attacks in southern Lebanon and the
eastern Bekaa Valley to which Hezbollah responded with fresh hits.
Israel cancelled an urgent -US-led meeting called to diffuse the
widening war.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar 5, In Israel the
government voted to back Prime Minister Barak's plan to withdraw troops
from southern Lebanon by July.
(SFC, 3/6/00, p.A10)
2000 Mar 17, Lebanon granted
asylum to Kozo Okamoto, one of the terrorists in the May 30, 1972
massacre at an Israeli airport. 4 other Japanese Red Army members were
deported to Japan.
(SFC, 3/18/00, p.A3)
2000 Apr 3, US defense chief Cohen
said that the US would join an int’l. force in south Lebanon when
Israel pulls out.
(WSJ, 4/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Apr 12, In Israel the Supreme
Court ruled that the detention of Lebanese men for more than a decade
was illegal. A release was scheduled for 13 men on Apr 17.
(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A14)
2000 Apr 26, Prime Minister Salim
Hoss announced that UN peacekeepers would be allowed to fill the vacuum
left by departing Israelis.
(SFC, 4/27/00, p.A10)
2000 Apr 28, In southern Lebanon
guerrillas attacked the Aramta outpost with a car bomb and killed 3-4
Israeli-allied militiamen.
(SFC, 4/28/00, p.A19)(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A14)
2000 May 4, Lebanese guerrillas
fired some 20 Katyusha rockets into Kiryat Shemona, a town in northern
Israel. One Israeli soldier was killed and over 24 people were injured.
Israel retaliated with heavy air strikes.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.A1)
2000 May 5, Israel and Hezbollah
guerrillas in Lebanon agreed to a cease-fire.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.C1)
2000 May 20, Israeli warplanes
attacked Palestinian targets in Lebanon and destroyed 10 tanks. Israeli
soldiers clashed with Palestinian demonstrators for the 9th day in
Palestinian territories within Israel.
(SFEC, 5/21/00, p.A10)
2000 May 22, Israel’s 22-year
occupation of southern Lebanon crumbled as Islamic guerrillas and
civilians laid claim to disputed lands.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A1)
2000 May 23, The South Lebanon
Army abandoned its positions and Israel’s 22-year occupation of its
“security zone” ended.
(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A1)
2000 May 28, In southern Lebanon 2
children were killed and 7 people were injured when their car drove
over a land mine. In Rmeiche a Hezbollah fighter killed a Christian
man. At Kafr Kila Israeli soldiers fired on Lebanese and Palestinian
civilians throwing stones across the border.
(SFC, 5/29/00, p.A10)
2000 Jun 16, The Israeli pullout
from Lebanon was finished according to UN Sec.-Gen. Kofi Annan.
Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss claimed that some Israeli outposts
were still present inside their border.
(SFC, 6/17/00, p.A8)(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.A9)
2000 Jun 24, Israeli police fired
across the Lebanese border at the Fatima gate at Kfar Kila. 3 Jordanian
civilians were wounded.
(SFC, 6/25/00, p.A6)
2000 Aug 5, UN peacekeeping troops
began spreading out along the border between Israel and Lebanon.
(SFEC, 8/6/00, p.C9)
2000 Aug 27, Elections were held
for 63 seats of the 128-member parliament for Mount Lebanon and North
Lebanon.
(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A11)
2000 Sep 3, In Lebanon elections
were held for the remaining 65 seats of parliament. Hezbollah had
agreed to accept only 12 seats in a coalition with the Shiite Amal
Party. Parliamentary seats were apportioned according to religious
denomination based on a census from 1932. Candidates backed by former
Prime Minister Rafik Hariri gained a powerful majority.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, p.A18)(SFC, 9/4/00, p.B10)
2000 Oct 7, Three Israeli soldiers
were kidnapped on the Lebanon border. Un peacekeepers made a film 18
hours later that showed Hezbollah guerrillas, the vehicles used and
other evidence of the abduction.
(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A12)
2000 Oct 16, Israel announced the
kidnapping by Hizbullah of Elchanan Tannenbaum (b.1946), a colonel in
Israel’s reserves. He was kidnapped in Dubai and taken to Lebanon.
Tannenbaum was released in January 2004 as part of a prisoner swap with
Hezbollah. The swap exchanged 435 prisoners held by Israel in return
for Tannenbaum's release and the return of the bodies of 3 soldiers
killed during an ambush along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
(Econ, 9/6/08,
p.99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elchanan_Tennenbaum)
2000 Oct 23, Pres. Lahoud
appointed Rafik Hariri (56) as prime minister.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A16)
2000 Nov 11, In Naameh two 4-story
apartment buildings collapsed and at least 9 people were killed and 27
injured.
(SFEC, 11/12/00, p.A19)(SFC, 11/13/00, p.A14)
2000 Nov 26, Israel attacked
targets in southern Lebanon after a roadside bomb killed one Israeli
soldier and wounded 2 others near the border. 4 armed Palestinians were
killed as they left Qalqilya into an area on Israeli control.
(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A8)
2000 Dec 11, Syria freed some 50
Lebanese political prisoners to placate an anti-Syria movement in
Lebanon.
(SFC, 12/12/00, p.B2)
2000 The film “Civilized People,”
directed by Randa Chahal Sabbag, was banned in Lebanon and premiered in
the US. It was set in 1981 Beirut.
(SFEC, 9/3/00, DB p.53)
2000 Syria began the 1st of 5
redeployments in Lebanon.
(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A8)
2001 Apr 16, Israeli warplanes
struck deep in Lebanon and attacked a Syrian radar site. 3 Syrians were
killed.
(SFC, 4/16/01, p.A9)(WSJ, 4/16/01, p.A1)
2001 May 24, The Israeli Air Force
shot down a small plane off the coast and killed a Lebanese student
pilot (43).
(SFC, 5/25/01, p.A14)
2001 Jun 19, Syria completed a
pullout of its forces from Beirut.
(WSJ, 6/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 8, In Lebanon up to 250
people were arrested in protests that demanded Syrian withdrawal from
Lebanon.
(SFC, 8/9/01, p.A9)
2001 Sep 18, The US asked Lebanon
and Syria to extradite Palestinian and Lebanese Shiites suspected of
terrorism in the past 20 years.
(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A12)
2001 Oct 22, Israeli forces held
on to Palestinian territory despite US demands for withdrawal. 3
Palestinians were killed as fighting spilled into Lebanon.
(SFC, 10/23/01, p.A13)
2001 Nov 28, It was reported that
Hezbollah’s TV channel, al-Manar, was one of 4 Arabic language cable
stations available in Paraguay.
(WSJ, 11/28/01, p.A10)
2002 Jan 23, Israeli jets attacked
Hezbollah sites in Lebanon after a disputed border area was shelled.
(WSJ, 1/24/02, p.A1)
2002 Jan 24, In Beirut, Lebanon, a
car bomb killed Elie Hobeika and three others. Hobeika, a former
Christian militia chieftain, led a 1982 massacre of Palestinian
refugees in the Sabra and Chatilla camps. He had recently agreed to
testify against Israeli PM Ariel Sharon in connection with the
massacre. Lebanese for a Free and Independent Lebanon claimed
responsibility for the car bomb.
(SFC, 1/25/02, p.A10)
2002 Feb 4, Israeli PM Peres said
Iran had put elite forces into Lebanon and had supplied Hezbollah with
10,000 rockets with ranges of 13-44 miles.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A10)
2002 Mar 3, Syria’s Pres. Assad
officially visited Lebanon for the 1st time in 27 years and met with
Lebanon’s Pres. Emile Lahoud.
(SFC, 3/4/02, p.A5)
2002 Mar 27, In Beirut the Arab
League opened a summit of its 22 member states. Egypt’s Pres. Mubarek
did not attend. It dissolved into chaos when Palestinian delegates
stalked out when Arafat was not given a prominent place for a live
broadcast. Arafat endorsed the peace initiative of Prince Abdullah.
(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/27/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 28, In Beirut the Arab
League committed to accepting Israel as a neighbor under conditions
that included the creation of an independent Palestinian state and
Israel's full withdrawal from war-won lands, an offer that Israel did
not accept.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A15)(AP,
3/28/03)(www.mideastweb.org/saudipeace.htm)
2002 Apr 3, Israeli tanks entered
the Wet Bank cities of Jenin, Salfeet and Nablus. At least 1 Israeli
soldier and 12 Palestinians were killed. Gunners from Lebanon’s
Hezbollah exchanged artillery and mortar fire with Israeli troops.
Scores of Palestinian gunmen were holed up in the Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem. The Egyptian government announced a cutoff of
official contacts with Israel. Syria shifted 20,000 troops in Lebanon
toward the Lebanese-Syrian border reportedly in accord with the 1989
Taif agreement.
(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/4/02, p.A1,13)(WSJ,
4/4/02, p.A1)(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A4)
2002 Apr 4, Israel continued for a
7th-day its offensive titled Operation Defensive Shield. Tanks entered
Hebron house-to-house fighting with Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin
refugee camp. 3 Israeli soldiers were killed. Guerrilla fighters fired
9 rockets into Israel.
(SFC, 4/5/02, p.A16)
2002 May 20, In Lebanon a car bomb
killed Jihad Jibril (38), head of local military operations for the
PFLP-GC. He was the son of Palestinian guerrilla leader Ahmed Jibril
who headed the Syrian-based Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine-General Command, founded in 1968. In 2008 a retired Lebanese
police officer and a Palestinian were indicted for allegedly working
with Israeli intelligence to assassinate Jibril.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)(AP, 6/18/08)
2002 Jul 11, Three members of the
Lebanese army intelligence service were killed while trying to make
arrests near Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, the Lebanese
army said.
(AP, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 31, In Lebanon a
disgruntled Education Ministry employee opened fire at colleagues at a
ministry office in Beirut, killing eight people and wounding five
before he was apprehended by police.
(AP, 7/31/02)
2002 Sep 14, President Emile
Lahoud said Lebanon will start pumping water from a shared border river
for its southern villages despite Israeli military threats.
(AP, 9/14/02)
2002 Sep 27, In Lebanon tens of
thousands marched through the streets of Beirut chanting "death to
Israel" and "death to America," in support of Palestinians' third year
of uprising.
(AP, 9/27/02)
2002 Sep 27, Police in Lebanon
arrested Muhammad Sultan on charges of forging passports and supporting
a terrorist group based on German police investigations. Sultan was
released in 2004 after serving a 3½ year sentence.
(WSJ, 1/31/06, p.A6)
2002 Nov 21, In Sidon, Lebanon,
Bonnie Witherall (31), an American missionary, was shot and killed at a
Christian center that provides medical care and aid to Palestinian
refugees.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2002 Nov 23, Some of the world's
richest countries agreed to offer about $4.3 billion in financial
support for debt-ridden Lebanon.
(AP, 11/23/02)
2003 Mar 2, Syria
reportedly finished pulling 4,000 troops out of Lebanon in an effort to
reduce tensions and keep radical Sunni groups from attacking Israel.
(SSFC, 3/2/03, A6)
2003 Mar, In 2007 British media
reported that Iran had offered to cut off aid and support for the
Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas, and
promised full transparency on its nuclear program in a secret letter to
the US soon after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iran also offered to use
its influence to support stabilization in Iraq, and in return asked for
a halt in hostile American behaviour, an abolition of all sanctions,
and the pursuit and repatriation of members of the Mujahedeen Khalq
(People's Mujahedeen MKO). Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to
Colin Powell, said: “As soon as it got to the Vice-President's (Dick
Cheney) office, the old mantra of 'we don't talk to evil' ...
reasserted itself."
(AFP, 1/18/07)
2003 Jul 15, Officials reported
that Syrian troops had begun dismantling bases in Lebanon.
(SFC, 7/16/03, p.A3)
2003 Aug 2, A bomb exploded in a
car south of Beirut, killing at least two people in the vehicle and
wounding passers-by.
(AP, 8/2/03)
2003 Aug 8, Hezbollah guerrillas
shelled Israeli positions in a disputed Lebanese border region for the
first time in eight months, drawing Israeli airstrikes and artillery
fire.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2003 Aug 10, Israeli warplanes
bombed suspected Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, hours after
the militant group shelled northern Israel, killing a teenage boy.
(AP, 8/10/03)
2003 Sep 7, The Russian drama "The
Return" won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion for best picture.
Vladimir Girin (15), star of the film, drowned shortly after the film
was shot. Randa Chahal Sabbag, Lebanese filmmaker, won the Silver Lion
prize for her film “Le cerf-volant” (The Kite), a love story between a
Lebanese girl and an Israeli border guard.
(SFC, 9/8/03, p.D5)(WPR, 3/04, p.45)
2003 Oct 11, A Lebanese woman gave
birth to sextuplets, four girls and two boys.
(AP, 10/11/03)
2003 Oct 27, Hezbollah guerrillas
shelled Israeli positions in southern Lebanon for the first time in two
months, wounding an Israeli soldier and triggering Israeli airstrikes
and artillery fire. The Israeli positions were in Chebaa Farms,
which Lebanon and Syria say belongs to Lebanon. The UN says the area is
Syrian and that Syria and Israel should negotiate its fate. Israel
captured the Chebaa Farms area from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war
(AP, 10/27/03)(AP, 10/30/03)
2003 Dec 20, A Lebanese military
court convicted 32 people of bombing American and British businesses,
and imposed sentences ranging from three months to life imprisonment.
(AP, 12/20/03)
2003 Dec 25, A passenger plane
bound for Beirut crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff from the
west African nation of Benin and at least 138 people, mostly Lebanese,
were killed. Some 35 people survived.
(AP, 12/25/03)(SFC, 12/26/03, p.A3)(AP, 12/27/03)
2004 Jan 17, In Lebanon 3 killers
were executed and grenade blasts followed in Beirut's largest
Palestinian refugee camp.
(WSJ, 1/19/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 20, Israeli warplanes
struck Hezbollah guerrilla bases in southern Lebanon after a soldier
was killed there a day earlier.
(AP, 1/20/04)(WSJ, 1/21/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 24, Israeli officials
said they would release over 400 Arab prisoners in a swap with
Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 29, Israel released 435
prisoners in a swap, mediated by Germany, with the Lebanese guerrilla
group Hezbollah in exchange for an Israeli businessman and the bodies
of 3 Israeli soldiers. The businessman was Elchanan Tannenbaum, a
colonel in Israel’s reserves, who was kidnapped in Dubai in 2000 and
had knowledge of an advanced Israeli weapons system.
(AP, 1/29/04)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.99)
2004 Feb 9, The UN adopted
Resolution 1559. It called for free elections in Lebanon and the
withdrawal of all foreign forces and the disbanding of all militias.
(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sc8181.doc.htm)
2004 Mar 5, A bomb exploded as
south Lebanon's police chief was driving across a bridge in the eastern
region, blowing off one foot and mangling another.
(AP, 3/5/04)
2004 Mar 23, Israeli helicopter
gunships fired on gunmen in southern Lebanon, killing two and wounding
one.
(AP, 3/23/04)
2004 May 5, Israeli warplanes
fired missiles at a suspected guerrilla hideout in south Lebanon,
shortly after Hezbollah gunners fired on Israeli jets.
(AP, 5/5/04)
2004 May 7, Israeli warplanes
struck suspected guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon after
artillery fire killed one Israeli soldier on the border.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 27, Lebanese soldiers
opened fire on anti-government demonstrators, killing 5 and wounding at
least seven. Demonstrators set fire to the Labor Ministry.
(AP, 5/27/04)(WSJ, 5/28/04, p.A1)
2004 Jun 3, In Beirut, Lebanon,
OPEC leaders agreed to raise their output ceiling by 2.5 million
barrels a day.
(WSJ, 6/4/04, p.A2)
2004 Jun 12, A Lebanese Foreign
Ministry official said Iraqi gunmen had kidnapped three Lebanese in
Iraq and killed one of them.
(AP, 6/12/04)
2004 Jul 9, Cpl. Wassef Ali
Hassoun (24) arrived in Germany from Lebanon, where he had turned up at
the US Embassy in Beirut a day earlier. He had been missing since June
20 from his base near the troubled Iraqi city of Fallujah. The Pentagon
announced that Hassoun would be charged with desertion, larceny and
wrongful disposition of military property in connection with his
service-issued M9 pistol that disappeared with him and never turned up.
On January 4, 2005, he was again labeled a deserter after failing to
return to his base at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina from authorized
leave. He was reportedly in Lebanon.
(AP, 7/10/04)(SFC, 7/9/04,
p.A1)(www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/05/hassoun.case/index.html)
2004 Jul 19, The car of a
Hezbollah militia official exploded as he was leaving his home in
southern Beirut, killing him in an attack the Islamic militant group
said was a "brazen crime" by Israel that would be avenged.
(AP, 7/19/04)
2004 Jul 20, Israeli helicopter
gunships and tanks fired on Hezbollah guerrilla positions in southern
Lebanon, killing one guerrilla, Lebanese security officials reported.
Hezbollah said it killed two Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 7/20/04)
2004 Aug 1, A Lebanese hostage was
freed unharmed after Iraqi police raided his kidnappers' hideout in an
operation that ended with the arrest of three terror suspects.
(AP, 8/2/04)
2004 Aug 13, Lebanon criticized
French efforts to ban the militant group Hezbollah's television
station, saying the channel may be anti-Israeli but it is not
anti-Semitic.
(AP, 8/14/04)
2004 Aug 28, In Lebanon pro-Syrian
President Emile Lahoud's bid to stay in office three more years was
assured in a dramatic about-face when political rival Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri bowed to Syrian pressure and proposed a constitutional
amendment allowing the head of state to extend his term.
(AP, 8/28/04)
2004 Aug 29, In Sidon, Lebanon,
fighting in a Palestinian camp left 3 dead.
(WSJ, 8/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Sep 2, The UN Security
Council narrowly approved a U.S.-backed resolution aimed at pressuring
Lebanon to reject a second term for its pro-Syrian president and
calling for an immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces.
(AP, 9/2/04)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.43)
2004 Sep 4, Lebanese lawmakers
amended their constitution to keep pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud in
office, boldly reaffirming their loyalty to Damascus and defying a U.N.
resolution calling for presidential elections.
(AP, 9/4/04)
2004 Sep 6, In Lebanon 4 Cabinet
ministers resigned to protest the extension of President Emile Lahoud's
term.
(AP, 9/6/04)
2004 Sep 10, Two Lebanese men were
shot dead in Baghdad.
(AP, 9/10/04)
2004 Sep 15, The Egyptian and
Syrian presidents linked calls by the UN and fellow Arab leaders for
Syrian troops to leave Lebanon to past UN resolutions demanding that
Israeli pull out of the West Bank and Golan Heights.
(AP, 9/15/04)
2004 Sep 21, Italian and Lebanese
authorities reported the arrest of 10 alleged terrorists, thwarting
plans to blow up the Italian Embassy in Beirut in a car bomb attack.
(AP, 9/21/04)
2004 Sep 21, Hundreds of Syrian
soldiers stationed in the hills near Lebanon's capital began
dismantling their bases in an effort to appease a U.N. Security Council
demand that all 20,000 Syrian troops leave the country.
(AP, 9/21/04)
2004 Sep 27, Lebanon said a top al
Qaeda operative, captured a week earlier, died of a heart attack while
in police custody.
(WSJ, 9/28/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 1, In Lebanon a car bomb
exploded in central Beirut, wounding a former Lebanese Cabinet minister
in an assassination attempt. The explosion killed the politician's
driver and seriously wounded his bodyguard.
(AP, 10/1/04)
2004 Oct 2, In Lebanon a military
prosecutor has charged 35 Arab nationals and alleged members of an
al-Qaida-linked terror group with plotting to bomb foreign targets,
including the Italian and Ukrainian diplomatic missions.
(AP, 10/2/04)
2004 Oct 20, Lebanon’s PM Rafik
Hariri resigned, dissolved his Cabinet and made the surprise
announcement that he would not try to form the next government.
(AP, 10/20/04)(Econ, 10/23/04, p.47)
2004 Oct 21, Lebanon's Pres. Emil
Lahoud appointed staunchly pro-Syrian politician Omar Karami as prime
minister, asking him to form the next government.
(AP, 10/21/04)
2004 Sep 27, Lebanon said Ismail
Katib, a local al Qaeda operative captured a week earlier, died “of a
heart attack” while in police custody.
(WSJ, 9/28/04, p.A1)(Econ, 10/2/04, p.47)
2005 Jan 1, Lebanon was forecast
for 4% annual GDP growth with a population at 3.8 million and GDP per
head at $5,110.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.94)
2005 Jan 9, A French officer
serving with U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon was killed by Israeli
shelling, shortly after a Hezbollah bomb attack killed an Israeli
soldier and wounded three others near the southern border.
(AP, 1/9/05)
2005 Jan 17, Israeli warplanes
attacked suspected Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon after the
guerrillas said they blew up an Israeli bulldozer in a disputed area
near the border, reportedly causing casualties.
(AP, 1/17/05)
2005 Jan 23, Lebanon's finance
minister played down the transfer by Iraq's Defense Ministry of $500
million in cash to a financial institution in Beirut, saying he would
expect such a transfer to be legal if it was made by the Iraqi
government. Iraqi officials in early January sent some $300 million on
a charter jet to Lebanon to purchase weapons from int’l. arms dealers.
(SFC, 1/22/05, p.A10)(AP, 1/23/05)
2005 Feb 14, In Beirut, Lebanon,
Rafik Hariri (60) was killed in a massive bomb explosion that tore
through his motorcade. The billionaire helped rebuild his country after
decades of war but resigned as PM last fall after a sharp dispute with
Syria. 22 other people were killed and 100 wounded in a blast that
devastated the front of the famous St. George Hotel. An Islamist group
calling itself the Victory and Jihad Organization in the Levant claimed
responsibility.
(AP, 2/14/05)(WSJ, 2/15/05, p.A3)(Econ, 10/29/05,
p.45)
2005 Feb 15, In southern Lebanon
an angry mob attacked Syrian workers and another group threw stones and
set fires outside a Syrian government office in Beirut, blaming
Damascus for the bomb that killed former PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 18, The Lebanese
opposition stepped up its campaign against the pro-Syrian government,
calling for a peaceful uprising to force the resignation of Prime
Minister Omar Karami and the withdrawal of Syrian troops.
(AP, 2/19/05)
2005 Feb 21, The Arab League chief
said that Syria will "soon" take steps to withdraw its army from
Lebanese areas in accordance with a 1989 agreement. Tens of thousands
of opposition supporters shouted insults at Syria and demanded the
resignation of their pro-Syrian government in a Beirut demonstration.
(AP, 2/21/05)
2005 Feb 23, Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak said that he expects further Syrian troop redeployments
in Lebanon, and he dispatched his intelligence chief to Damascus to
meet with President Bashar Assad to discuss increasing American and
European pressure on Syria.
(AP, 2/23/05)
2005 Feb 24, Lebanon's defense
minister said Syria will withdraw troops from mountain and coastal
areas in Lebanon in line with a 1989 agreement.
(AP, 2/24/05)
2005 Feb 28, Defying a ban on
protests, about 10,000 people demonstrated against Syrian interference
in Lebanon, as opposition lawmakers sought to bring down the
pro-Damascus government. The pro-Damascus PM Omar Karami and his
Cabinet resigned.
(AP, 2/28/05)(SFC, 3/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 1, Lebanon's president
took on the task of forming a new government, while opposition leaders
shook off the jubilation of using people power to force out a
pro-Syrian Cabinet.
(AP, 3/1/05)
2005 Mar 2, President Bush
demanded in blunt terms that Syria get out of Lebanon.
(AP, 3/2/05)
2005 Mar 3, An Arab League meeting
opened in Cairo. An Arab diplomat said Syria has told Arab countries it
needs to keep 3,000 troops and early-warning stations inside Lebanon to
maintain its security despite international pressure for a full
withdrawal. Saudi Arabia told Syria to withdraw its troops.
(AP, 3/3/05)(SFC, 3/4/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 5, Syria’s Pres. Assad
outlined a two-step pullback: 1st to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, nearer to
the Syrian border; 2nd, a redeployment from there all the way to the
Syrian frontier.
(AP, 3/5/05)
2005 Mar 7, The presidents of
Syria and Lebanon announced that Syrian forces will pull back to
Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley by March 31, but a complete troop
withdrawal will be deferred until after later negotiations.
(AP, 3/7/05)
2005 Mar 8, In Lebanon nearly
500,000 pro-Syrian protesters waved flags and chanted anti-American
slogans in a central Beirut square, answering a nationwide call by the
militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group.
(AP, 3/8/05)
2005 Mar 10, Lebanon's president,
emboldened by a massive pro-Syria demonstration, reinstated Omar Karami
as PM, 10 days after the Damascus-backed leader stepped down.
(AP, 3/10/05)
2005 Mar 11, The last Syrian
troops left northern Lebanon but left behind intelligence officers in
nine offices. The UN Mideast envoy said Syria needs to produce a
timetable for a full withdrawal from the rest of Lebanon. Since 1976
some 15,000 Syrian troops were killed in the Lebanese civil war.
Lebanese protests following the Feb 14 assassination of Rafik Hariri,
later dubbed the “cedar revolution,” forced Pres. Assad to withdraw his
army after a 30-year stay.
(AP, 3/11/05)(Econ, 4/2/05, p.41)(Econ, 7/25/09, SR
p.11)
2005 Mar 12, It was reported that
Lebanese have been switching their savings from Lebanese pounds to the
safety of the dollar for fear the local currency will collapse, as it
did during the war. The Central Bank has unloaded hundreds of millions
of dollars to shore up the pound.
(AP, 3/12/05)
2005 Mar 14, Hundreds of thousands
of opposition demonstrators chanted "Freedom, sovereignty,
independence" and unfurled a huge Lebanese flag in Beirut, the biggest
protest yet in the opposition's duel of street rallies with supporters
of the Damascus-backed government. The “March 14 Forces,” advocates of
Syrian withdrawal, grew from this demonstration.
(AP, 3/14/05)(Econ, 7/29/06, p.43)
2005 Mar 23, In Lebanon a bomb
killed three people in a Christian commercial center, the second attack
in an anti-Syrian stronghold in five days.
(AP, 3/23/05)
2005 Mar 29, Syria promised the UN
that it will withdraw all troops from Lebanon before parliamentary
elections but didn't mention a pullout of its intelligence operatives
as demanded by the Security Council.
(AP, 3/29/05)
2005 Apr 13, Lebanon’s pro-Syrian
premier quit for the 2nd time in 6 weeks.
(WSJ, 4/14/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 16, Lebanon's president
Emile Lahoud named moderate pro-Syrian lawmaker Najib Mikati (49) as
prime minister.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 18, Lebanese lawmaker
Bassel Fleihan (41), a former economy minister, died of wounds received
2 months ago in a bombing that killed his close friend, former PM Rafik
Hariri.
(AP, 4/18/05)
2005 Apr 24, Syrian troops burned
documents and dismantled military posts in their final hours in
Lebanon, before deploying toward the border and effectively ending 29
years of military presence in the country.
(AP, 4/24/05)
2005 Apr 26, Syria ended its
29-year military domination of Lebanon as soldiers flashing victory
signs completed a withdrawal.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 May 6, In Lebanon an
explosion ravaged a shopping area and set off a fire near a Christian
religious radio station in the port city of Jounieh north of Beirut.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 7, Gen. Michel Aoun, who
led a quixotic battle to oust Syria's army from Lebanon 16 years ago,
returned to Lebanon from a lengthy exile in France.
(AP, 5/7/05)
2005 May 11, A Katyusha rocket
fired from Lebanon landed in the northern Israeli town of Shlomi
heavily damaging a factory and drawing an Israeli threat of retaliation.
(AP, 5/11/05)
2005 May 13, Hezbollah shelled
Israeli positions in the disputed Chebaa Farms near the border, and the
Israeli army returned fire in the heaviest exchange in months between
Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla force.
(AP, 5/13/05)
2005 May 25, In Lebanon Sheik
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, vowed to fight anyone who tries
to take away the group's weapons, which he said included more than
12,000 rockets capable of hitting northern Israel.
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 29, Lebanon held
parliamentary elections. Candidates loyal to the son of assassinated
politician Rafik Hariri swept the 1st stage of the first Lebanese
election largely free of Syrian domination, claiming all 19
parliamentary seats in Beirut.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 30, Officials in Lebanon
announced that Saad Hariri, the son of assassinated former premier
Rafik Hariri, had swept parliamentary elections in Beirut.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2005 Jun 2, In Lebanon Samir
Kassir, a prominent journalist known for his anti-Syrian writings, was
killed after a bomb placed in his car exploded in Beirut.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 5, Lebanon held its 2nd
of a 4-stage vote. A week earlier anti-Syrian opposition candidates
took most of the capital's 19 parliamentary seats. 53 candidates vied
for 23 seats in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah, the armed group considered
a terrorist organization by the US, and its Amal allies swept voting in
southern Lebanon.
(AP, 6/6/05)(WSJ, 6/7/05, p.A1)
2005 Jun 12, Lebanon held its
third round of a four-stage election. Michel Aoun, a Lebanese Christian
general, appeared headed toward a surprising victory. He once
fought the Syrian army and returned from exile just weeks ago.
Fifty-eight of 128 seats in parliament were at stake in the elections
in central and eastern regions of the country.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun 19, In Lebanon voters
cast their ballot in the last round of elections. The anti-Syrian
opposition secured a majority in the Lebanese parliament, after
opposition candidates swept all seats in the last round of elections.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 21, In Lebanon George
Hawi (67), a former Communist boss and critic of Syria, was killed when
his car blew up on a Beirut street in the 2nd slaying of an anti-Syrian
figure this month.
(AP, 6/24/05)
2005 Jun 28, Lebanon's new
parliament overwhelmingly re-elected a pro-Syrian as speaker in a
political compromise by the anti-Syrian coalition that won the
elections.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jun 29, Lebanon’s anti-Syrian
lawmakers nominated Fuad Saniora, a former finance minister known for
his pro-market policies, to be the country's next prime minister.
(AP, 6/29/05)
2005 Jun 29, Hezbollah guerrillas
attacked Israeli forces in a disputed part of the south Lebanon border,
wounding six soldiers and triggering an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli
strike killed Hezbollah guerrilla Milhem Hassan Salhab (35).
(AP, 6/30/05)(AP, 7/4/05)
2005 Jul 12, A car bomb hit the
motorcade of Elias Murr, Lebanon's outgoing deputy prime minister,
wounding him and killing at least one other person.
(AP, 7/12/05)
2005 Jul 18, Lebanon's newly
elected Parliament, dominated by an anti-Syrian coalition, approved an
amnesty motion for the release of former Christian warlord Samir
Geagea, who has been behind bars since 1994.
(AP, 7/18/05)
2005 Jul 19, Fouad Siniora
succeeded Najib Mikati as PM of Lebanon.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fouad_Siniora)
2005 Jul 20, In Lebanon
PM-designate Fuad Siniora announced a cabinet of 24 ministers. The
lineup for the first time included a member of the Hizb Allah movement.
Mohammed Fneish became energy minister. Hizb Allah ally Tarrad Hamadeh
retained the post of labor minister.
(http://tinyurl.com/m8ctm)
2005 Jul 22, In Lebanon a bomb
exploded on a narrow street crowded with bars and restaurants, wounding
12 people just hours after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
visited the area.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Jul 26, In Lebanon Samir
Geagea (53), a notorious anti-Syrian Christian warlord, was released
after 11 years in prison.
(AP, 7/26/05)
2005 Jul 28, Assistant Secretary
of State David Welch told the US House International Relations
Committee said Iranian cadres are training Hezbollah fighters in
Lebanon.
(AP, 7/28/05)
2005 Aug 1, Trucks loaded with
produce and other merchandise began crossing into Syria from Lebanon on
their way to Gulf countries after Syria eased restrictions that left
them stranded for nearly four weeks in the border area.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Aug 11, Lebanese police
arrested Omar Bakri, the Islamic cleric who is being investigated in
Britain for his remarks on the London bombings.
(AP, 8/11/05)
2005 Aug 12, Lebanon freed the
radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri, hours after Britain declared he would
not be allowed to return to its shores.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 22, In Lebanon a bombing
wounded five people in Beirut.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 30, Lebanon's PM Fuad
Saniora said the commander of the Presidential Guards, three former
security chiefs and a former lawmaker are suspects in the Feb 14
assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 8/30/05)
2005 Sep 16, In Lebanon a powerful
bomb exploded in a Christian neighborhood of eastern Beirut, killing at
least one person and wounding 23.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 21, In Lebanon police
arrested four men who allegedly sold cell phone chips to members of the
plot to assassinate former PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 25, A bomb rigged to the
car of May Chidiac, a prominent journalist for an anti-Syrian
television station, exploded severing her arm and leg in the latest in
a string of targeted explosions in Lebanon.
(AP, 9/25/05)
2005 Sep, The novel “The Girls of
Riyadh” by Rajaa al-Sanie (23) was published in Lebanon. Only pirated
copies were available in Saudi Arabia. Rajaa Alsanea wrote the novel as
a series of anonymous e-mails about the protagonists. In 2007 the book
became available in English.
(SFC, 12/16/05, p.A29)(WSJ, 6/29/07, p.W2)
2005 Oct 19, The International
Organization for Migration (IMO) said "Ethiopian women and girls who
migrate to Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia suffer from
maltreatment, physical, sexual and emotional abuses," in a report based
on interviews with 443 women returning from the region.
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Oct 20, It was reported that
Lebanon's state-run telephone system has billed the government for more
than $11 million in unpaid telephone charges run up by Syrian troops
before they left the country earlier this year after a nearly
three-decade occupation. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said Lebanon’
government would pay the bill.
(AP, 10/20/05)
2005 Oct 23, Militant Palestinians
fought members of a Lebanese leftist party in a gun battle that left
one man dead and three wounded outside a refugee camp.
(AP, 10/23/05)
2005 Oct 31, A UN resolution
sponsored by the US, France and Britain demanded that Syria assist
fully with a probe into the February killing of former Lebanese leader
Hariri.
(WSJ, 11/1/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 14, It was reported that
a consortium led by Saudi Arabia's Oger Telecom has signed a deal to
take a majority stake in state-owned telecommunications company Turk
Telekom, sealing Turkey's largest privatization worth 6.55 billion
dollars. Oger Telecom, part of the Oger group owned by the family of
slain former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri, had won the tender for the 55%
stake in July, in partnership with Italian operator Telecom Italia.
(AFP, 11/14/05)
2005 Nov 21, Hezbollah guerrillas
in Lebanon fired mortars and rockets at Israeli troops in a disputed
border area, the first clash between the two sides in five months. 4
Hezbollah guerrillas were killed in raids meant to capture Israeli
troops along the Lebanon border.
(AP, 11/21/05)(WSJ, 11/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Nov 22, Israeli warplanes
struck in Lebanon in what Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz
described as the largest-scale Israeli response to cross-border attacks
by Lebanese guerrillas since 2000.
(AP, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 23, Hezbollah guerrillas
clashed with Israeli soldiers on the southern Lebanese border.
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Nov 25, Israel handed over
the remains of three Hezbollah guerrillas to Lebanon in a bid to defuse
tensions after fierce border clashes, but Hezbollah's leader said his
group will keep trying to kidnap Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 11/25/05)
2005 Dec 3, Troops exhumed the
remains of 25 bodies from a mass grave near a former Syrian military
base in eastern Lebanon. About 17,000 Lebanese who disappeared during
1975-90 civil war are still missing, including 61 Lebanese soldiers.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 12, In Lebanon Gibran
Tueni (48), general manager and chief columnist of the An-Nahar
newspaper, died when a car bomb struck his motorcade in Beirut's suburb
of Mkalles. The bombing killed two other people and wounded 30 more.
Tueni was killed a day after returning from France, where he had been
staying periodically for fear of assassination.
(AP, 12/13/05)
2005 Dec 16, Mohammed Ali Hamadi,
a Lebanese man serving a life sentence in Germany for the 1985
hijacking of a TWA jetliner and killing of a U.S. Navy diver, returned
to Lebanon after being paroled in Germany.
(AP, 12/20/05)
2005 Dec 17, The chief UN
investigator into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri said in published remarks that he believed Syrian
authorities were behind the killing.
(AP, 12/17/05)
2005 Dec 19, Lebanon closed a
military route that crossed its border into Syria, ending nearly 3
decades of unmonitored flow of high-ranking officials and goods between
the two countries.
(AP, 12/19/05)
2005 Dec 27, Abdel-Qadar Abdel
Qader, a Syrian, was arrested in Lebanon on suspicion of involvement in
the assassination of Gibran Tueni, the anti-Syrian general manager and
columnist of Lebanon's leading newspaper.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 27, Three rockets landed
in a residential area of a northern Israeli town near the Lebanese
border, damaging some property but causing no injuries.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 28, Israeli jets blasted
a Palestinian militant group's base a few miles outside Beirut, hours
after rockets fired from Lebanon hit a northern Israeli border town.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 Dec 28, Officials said UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has nominated Serge Brammertz, a Belgian
prosecutor, to lead the next stage of a probe into the assassination of
former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 In Lebanon interest payments
accounted for a third of government spending. The ratio of debt to
revenue was 751%, the world’s worst according to Moody’s Investors’
Service.
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.65)
2006 Jan 17, Thousands of
pro-Syrian Lebanese chanting "Death to America" protested near the US
Embassy against what they called American meddling in the country's
affairs.
(AP, 1/17/06)
2006 Feb 2, Lebanese officials
said the bullet-ridden body of a 15-year-old shepherd was found in
disputed territory occupied by Israel.
(AP, 2/2/06)
2006 Feb 3, Hezbollah guerrillas
attacked an Israeli military position in a disputed part of the south
Lebanon border, provoking a swift Israeli airstrike on suspected
Hezbollah sites.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 5, Thousands of Muslims
rampaged in Beirut, setting fire to the Danish Embassy, burning Danish
flags and lobbing stones at a Maronite Catholic church as violent
protests spread over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 14, The UN asked Lebanon
to explain reports of arms shipments crossing the Syrian border
destined for the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 23, Tens of thousands of
Lebanese Shiites beat their chests in mourning and shouted
anti-American slogans in a rally to protest the bombing of a Muslim
shrine in Iraq.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 24, French legal
authorities refused to extradite to Lebanon Zouheir Mohammad Assediq,
an ex-Syrian intelligence officer, to answer questions about the murder
of former Lebanese PM Rafiq el-Hariri.
(AFP, 2/26/06)
2006 Mar 13, Leaders of Lebanon's
rival factions resumed talks after a weeklong break in an attempt to
agree on the biggest issues that divide the country, the fate of the
pro-Syrian president and the U.N. call for Hezbollah's disarmament.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 13, Rana Abdel Rahim
Koleilat (39), a fugitive bank executive wanted for questioning in the
U.N. probe of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's
assassination, was arrested in Brazil on an unrelated charge. She
offered officers up to $200,000 to release her and was arrested on a
charge of attempted bribery. In 2003 Koleilat made headlines in Lebanon
and Europe in connection with questions about her role in the
disappearance of $300 million from the private Medina Bank where she
worked. The funds' disappearance was the worst financial scandal at a
Lebanese bank since the country's 1975-90 civil war.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 26, The UN said it did
not expect Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah guerillas by force but hoped
they would join the Lebanese army.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Apr 10, Lebanon arrested 9
Lebanese and Palestinians suspected of plotting the assassination of
Hezbollah’s leader.
(WSJ, 4/11/06, p.A1)
2006 May 10, In Lebanon a
quarter-million-strong wave of workers, students and activists, some
backed by pro-Syrian groups, marched through Beirut, protesting a
proposed tax hike and calling for the anti-Syrian prime minister to
resign.
(AP, 5/10/06)
2006 May 15, The Palestine
Liberation Organization reopened its Beirut office, closed since the
1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 26, In Lebanon security
officials said a car bomb killed Mahmoud Majzoub (41), a leader of
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and his brother Nidal (39). Islamic Jihad
vowed retaliation. The Iran-backed militant group had persisted in
attacking Israel while other major factions adhered to a cease-fire.
Islamic Jihad is led by Ramadan Shallah, a Palestinian from Gaza who
now lives in exile in Syria. It considers the 1979 Iranian Revolution
to be the beginning of a new era for the Muslim world and wants to turn
all of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza into an Islamic state. It rejects
compromise with Israel.
(AP, 5/26/06)
2006 May 28, Lebanese guerrillas
fired a barrage of rockets into northern Israel, wounding an Israeli
soldier at a military base. Israel destroyed most of the military
positions of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas along its northern border.
Rocket and artillery exchanges killed two guerrillas in Lebanon and
wounded two Israeli soldiers, two Lebanese civilians and six militants.
(AP, 5/28/06)(AP, 5/29/06)
2006 Jun 1, Thousands of Shiite
Muslims enraged by a TV comedy that mocked the leader of Hezbollah took
to the streets of southern Beirut, burning car tires and blocking roads.
(AP, 6/1/06)
2006 Jun 17, PM Fouad Siniora said
Lebanon will complain to the UN about Israel after a Lebanese man
confessed to killing Hezbollah and Palestinian guerrillas on May 26 on
the orders of Israeli intelligence.
(Reuters, 6/17/06)
2006 Jun 26, Syrian President
Bashar Assad said in a published interview that Lebanon is becoming a
shelter for al-Qaida-linked militants fleeing across the Syrian border
after a crackdown by authorities there.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jul 12, Hezbollah militants
captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. 3 Israeli
soldiers were killed in the raid along with one Hezbollah militant.
Dozens of Israeli troops crossed the Lebanese frontier with warplanes,
tanks and gunboats to hunt for the captives. 5 more Israelis were
killed in a tank that hit a mine. Two Lebanese civilians were killed in
an Israeli air strike on a coastal bridge at Qasmiyeh.
(AP, 7/12/06)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.45)
2006 Jul 13, Israel unleashed a
furious military campaign on Lebanon's main airport, highways, military
bases and other targets, retaliating for scores of Hezbollah guerrilla
rockets that rained down on Israel and reached as far as Haifa, its
third-largest city, for the first time. The death toll in two days of
fighting rose to 57 people. Lebanese guerrillas fired three rockets at
the northern Israeli town of Safed, wounding seven people. Israel
imposed a sea and air blockade on Lebanon to cut off supply routes to
Lebanese militants. Israel hit hundreds of targets in Lebanon as part
of its effort to force the release of two soldiers captured by
Hezbollah guerrillas. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar Television broadcast
pictures of the Iranian supplied 333mm Raad-1 rocket used in an attack
on the Israeli army base near Safed.
(AP, 7/13/06)(SFC, 7/14/06, p.A14)
2006 Jul 13, The EU criticized
Israel for using "disproportionate" force in its attacks on Lebanon
following the cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerillas who captured 2
Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 14, Israel tightened its
seal on Lebanon, blasting its air and road links to the outside world
and bringing its offensive to the capital for the first time to punish
Hezbollah and with it, the country for the capture of 2 Israeli
soldiers. Israel destroyed the home and office of Hezbollah's leader,
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Lebanese guerrillas fired a barrage of at least
60 Katyusha rockets throughout the day, hitting more than a dozen
communities across northern Israel. Israeli warplanes destroyed the
building housing the headquarters of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern
Beirut. Hezbollah guerrillas attacked an Israeli warship that had been
firing missiles into southern Beirut. A senior Israeli intelligence
official said Iranian troops helped Hezbollah fire a missile that
damaged the warship off the Lebanese coast. He also said about 100
Iranian soldiers are in Lebanon and helped fire the Iranian-made,
radar-guided C-102 at the ship that killed one and left three missing.
Deaths in 3 days of fighting rose to 61 people in Lebanon and 10 in
Israel.
(AP, 7/14/06)(AP, 7/14/07)
2006 Jul 15, Israeli warplanes
pounded Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold and roads around the
country killing at least 33 people. At least 12 Lebanese villagers,
including women and children, were killed in what appeared to be an
Israeli airstrike on a convoy of vehicles fleeing a village near the
border with Israel in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah expanded its rocket
fire, hitting another of Israel's main cities, and Israel warned that
the guerrillas could strike Tel Aviv. At least 88 people have died in
Lebanon, most of the them civilians, in the four-day Israeli offensive,
sparked by Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers. On the Israeli
side, at least 15 have been killed, four civilians and 11 soldiers.
(AP, 7/15/06)(SSFC, 7/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 15, Arab foreign
ministers held an emergency summit in Cairo over Israel's expanding
assault on Lebanon, the worst Israeli attack on its neighbor in 24
years.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 16,
Lebanese guerrillas fired a relentless barrage of rockets into the
northern Israeli city of Haifa, killing eight people at a railway depot
and wounding seven in a dramatic escalation of a five-day-old conflict
that has shattered hopes for Mideast peace. Israeli airstrikes reduced
entire apartment buildings to rubble and knocked out electricity in
swaths of Beirut. At least 33 people were killed.
(AP, 7/16/06)(SSFC, 7/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 16, Seven Canadians from
the same Montreal family, including four young children, were killed in
Lebanon when Israeli aircraft bombed a house in the southern village of
Aitaroun. 4 other relatives died soon thereafter from wounds in the
same attack.
(AP, 7/17/06)(Reuters, 7/18/06)
2006 Jul 17, Israeli warplanes
pummeled Lebanese infrastructure, killing at least 17 people. Hezbollah
patron Iran said a cease-fire and a prisoner swap were possible, and
the international community signaled willingness to send peacekeepers
to back a diplomatic solution. 3 rounds of rockets fired by Hezbollah
guerrillas struck Haifa, with one destroying a three-story building and
wounding three people. Hezbollah fired a total of 50 rockets in to
Israel. Total deaths in Lebanon reached 210 and 24 in Israel.
(AP, 7/17/06)(WSJ, 7/18/06, p.A1,7)
2006 Jul 17, British PM Tony Blair
and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the deployment of
international forces to stop Hezbollah from bombing Israel, a proposal
that Israel quickly rejected.
(AP, 7/17/06)
2006 Jul 18, Israel struck a
Lebanese army base outside Beirut and flattened a house near the
border, killing 31 people in a new wave of bombings. Hezbollah fired
more rockets at northern Israel, killing one Israeli and wounding
several others. Israel said its offensive in Lebanon could last several
more weeks and involve large numbers of ground forces.
(AP, 7/18/06)(WSJ, 7/19/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 19, Israeli troops
clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas on the Lebanese side of the border,
while warplanes flattened buildings and killed at least 56 people
overnight as fighting entered its second week with the US signaling it
will not push Israel toward a fast cease-fire. Lebanon's PM Fuad
Saniora called for a cease-fire and said that 300 people have been
killed, 1,000 have been wounded and a half-million displaced in
Israel's eight-day-old onslaught on Lebanon. Hezbollah rockets slammed
into the Arab-Israeli town of Nazareth killing two young brothers as
they played outside and wounding 18 other people.
(AP, 7/19/06)(Reuters, 7/19/06)(SFC, 7/20/06, p.A10)
2006 Jul 20, Israeli troops met
fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas as they crossed into
Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second straight day, and
Israel hinted at a full-scale invasion.
(AP, 7/20/06)
2006 Jul 21, Israel called up
reserve troops and warned civilians to flee Hezbollah-controlled
southern Lebanon, as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set up
a deep buffer zone. Hezbollah guerrillas fired two volleys of rockets
at Haifa, wounding five people and damaging shops and office buildings.
At least 335 people have been killed in Lebanon in the Israeli
campaign. 34 Israelis also have been killed, including 19 soldiers.
(AP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 22, Israeli tanks and
hundreds of troops moved in and out of Lebanon, taking over Maroun
al-Ras village, entering a UN observation post and engaging Hezbollah
militants by land, sea and air. Israeli warplanes blasted
communications and television transmission towers in central and
northern Lebanese mountains. Over 130 rockets struck northern Israeli,
hitting Karmiel, Kiriyat Shemona, Nahariya and smaller communities such
as Bet Hilel, Mayan Baruch and Mashov Am. Five Israelis were wounded.
The Lebanese health ministry reported 362 deaths in Lebanon so far in
the onslaught. 34 Israelis also have been killed.
(AP, 7/22/06)(SSFC, 7/23/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 23, Israeli warplanes
struck a minibus carrying people fleeing the fighting in southern
Lebanon, killing three people, Lebanese security officials said, and
Israel said it would accept a NATO-led international force to keep the
peace along the border. Hezbollah rockets killed two civilians in
northern Israel. Layal Nejim (23), a photographer working for a
Lebanese magazine, was killed when an Israeli missile exploded near her
taxi.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, Syria, one of
Hezbollah's main backers, said it will press for a cease-fire to end
the fighting between Israel and the Islamic militant group but only in
the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative.
(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 24, Israeli ground forces
pushed deeper into Lebanon in heavy fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas.
An Israeli Apache helicopter crashed near the Lebanese border while
attempting an emergency landing, and there were two casualties.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 24, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Lebanon to launch diplomatic
efforts aimed at ending 13 days of warfare.
(AP, 7/24/06)
2006 Jul 25, Israeli troops sealed
off the town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold in fierce fighting
in south Lebanon. Warplanes struck Nabatiyeh and destroyed a house
killing seven people, four from the same family. Guerrillas fired
rockets at northern Israel, killing a girl. An Israeli airstrike killed
4 UN observers at a UNIFIL post in southern Lebanon. The observers were
from Austria, Canada, China and Finland. Irish observers had warned
that airstrikes were too close. UNIFIL was created in 1978 after
Israel's first major invasion of southern Lebanon and has been there
ever since.
(AP, 7/25/06)(Reuters, 7/25/06)(WSJ, 7/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 25, The first edition of
a newspaper owned by the Iranian version of Hezbollah appeared on
newsstands with messages of support for its Lebanese cousins in their
fight against Israel.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 25, Sri Lanka, which at
80,000 has the largest contingent of expatriate workers in Lebanon,
wants those trapped in the conflict to stay put and those who have fled
the bombings to return, a minister said.
(AFP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul 26, Israel suffered its
bloodiest day in Lebanon in its offensive against Hezbollah, with
militants killing at least nine soldiers in a battle for the strategic
town of Bint Jbail.
(AP, 7/26/06)
2006 Jul 27, Top Israeli Cabinet
ministers decided not to expand the country's Lebanon offensive but
ordered the call up of thousands of additional reserve soldiers to
boost the campaign. The decision came as Israeli jets pounded across
Lebanon, extending their air campaign.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 27, Ayman al-Zawahri,
Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, issued a worldwide call for Muslims to rise up
in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza
until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq."
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 28, Hezbollah
politicians, while expressing reservations, joined their critics in the
government in agreeing to a peace package that includes strengthening
an international force in south Lebanon and disarming the guerrillas.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 28, Israeli warplanes and
artillery intensified strikes, hitting Hezbollah positions and crushing
houses and roads in towns in southern Lebanon, killing as many as 12
people. Hezbollah announced it had fired a new rocket, called the
Khaibar-1, striking near the northern Israeli town of Afula. Beirut
said 600 people have been killed in Lebanon, with confirmed fatalities
at 445, since fighting broke out, most of them Lebanese civilians. 33
Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting and 19 civilians were killed
in Hezbollah's unyielding rocket attacks on Israel's northern towns.
(AP, 7/28/06)(WSJ, 7/28/06, p.A1)
2006 Jul 28, The UN decided to
remove 50 unarmed observers (UNTSO and UNIFIL) from posts along
the Israeli-Lebanese border and relocate them with lightly armed UN
peacekeepers.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul 29, Israel said it had
pulled forces out of Hezbollah's stronghold in south Lebanon after
completing its current operation there. Israeli planes targeted bridges
in southern and eastern Lebanon in new airstrikes, destroying one in a
resort area on the Syrian border. Israel rejected a request by the UN
for a three-day cease-fire in Lebanon to deliver humanitarian supplies
and allow civilians to leave the war zone.
(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 29, The Middle East
crisis dominated the first full day of PM Tony Blair's tour of
California, forcing his promotion of British business interests here to
take a back seat. Blair's former foreign secretary, Jack Straw,
condemned Israeli action against Lebanon as "disproportionate" in the
first such comment by a senior British government minister. PM Blair
said an international agreement, leading to a cease-fire in the
Israel-Hezbollah conflict, is possible sometime in the next few days.
(AFP, 7/30/06)(AP, 7/29/06)
2006 Jul 30, Israeli missiles hit
several buildings in Qana, a southern Lebanon village, as people slept,
killing 29, mostly children, in the deadliest attack in 19 days of
fighting. Israeli PM Ehud Olmert expressed "great sorrow" for the
airstrikes but blamed Hezbollah guerrillas for using the area to launch
rockets at Israel. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called an emergency
meeting of the Security Council. Israel suspended air attacks on south
Lebanon for 48 hours in the face of widespread outrage over the
airstrike.
(AP, 8/3/06)(AP, 7/30/07)
2006 Jul 31, Israeli warplanes
carried out airstrikes in southern Lebanon, hours after agreeing to
temporarily halt raids while investigating a bombing that killed nearly
60 Lebanese civilians. Israel accidentally killed a Lebanese soldier
when it hit a car that it believed was carrying a senior Hezbollah
official.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Jul 31, The UN scrapped a
meeting of nations that might contribute troops to help stabilize south
Lebanon, a decision that reflected the deep divisions among key nations
on how to end the three-week war between Israel and Hezbollah.
(AP, 7/31/06)
2006 Aug 1, Heavy fighting raged
in the Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, and Hezbollah
television said 35 Israeli soldiers had been killed or wounded in the
fighting. Israeli warplanes pounded Shiite Lebanese villages in many
areas along the border and struck Hezbollah strongholds deep inside the
country.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Aug 2, Israel pressed the
first full day of a massive new ground attack, sending 8,000 troops
into southern Lebanon and seizing five people it said were Hezbollah
fighters in a dramatic airborne raid on a northeastern town. Hezbollah
retaliated with its deepest strikes yet into Israel, firing a record
number of more than 230 rockets. An Israeli-American was killed as he
fled for home by bicycle, and a stray rocket hit the West Bank for the
first time. People in the Lebanese village of Al Jamaliyeh, outside the
Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, used a front-end loader to carry away
some of the dead after a night of Israeli airstrikes and a commando
raid inside Baalbek that residents said killed at least 15 civilians.
(AP, 8/2/06)(SFC, 8/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 3, A massive wave of
guerrilla rockets pounded northern Israel in a matter of minutes,
killing 8 people. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, offered
to stop the attacks if Israel ends its airstrikes. Israel lost four
soldiers in fighting. Israeli military said four Hezbollah fighters
were killed and two wounded. Lebanese security officials said a missile
crashed into a two-story house in the border village of Taibeh, killing
a couple and their daughter. Lebanese PM Fuad Saniora said Lebanon's
death toll in more than three weeks of Israel-Hezbollah fighting has
reached more than 900. France circulated a revised UN resolution
calling for an immediate halt to Israeli-Hezbollah fighting and
spelling out conditions for a permanent cease-fire in Lebanon.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 4, Israel expanded its
assault on Lebanon, launching its first major attack on the Christian
heartland north of Beirut and severing the last significant road link
to Syria. Hezbollah renewed attacks on northern Israel, killing two
civilians in a barrage of 120 rockets. An Israeli airstrike hit dozens
of farm workers loading vegetables near the Lebanon-Syria border,
killing as many as 33. Five Lebanese civilians were killed and 19
wounded in the Israeli airstrikes north of Beirut in Christian areas
where Hezbollah has little support. Hezbollah's leader offered to stop
attacking if Israel ends its airstrikes. Israeli airstrikes flattened
two southern Lebanese houses and more than 50 people were buried in the
rubble, security officials and the state news agency said. Israel
denied attacking the villages.
(AP, 8/4/06)(SFC, 8/5/06, p.A11)
2006 Aug 5, Israeli naval
commandos battled with Hezbollah in the southern port city of Tyre,
while a guerrilla rocket killed a soldier in clashes on the border and
Israeli raids left at least eight people dead in multiple strikes
across the country. The Lebanese government's Higher Relief Council
said 907 Lebanese had been killed in the conflict. 75 Israelis have
been killed, 45 soldiers and 30 civilians.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, The US and France
reached agreement on a UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending
the fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 5, Thousands marched
through London to demand a halt to the Lebanon war as the British
government tried to deflect criticism that it has failed to call for an
immediate ceasefire.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 6, Hezbollah guerrillas
unleashed their deadliest barrage of rockets yet into northern Israel,
killing 12 reservists at a staging area. Israeli bombardment killed at
least 25 people in southern Lebanon as fighting only intensified
despite a draft UN cease-fire resolution. Hezbollah rockets crashed
into Haifa, killing at least three people and wounding more than 40.
(AP, 8/6/06)(SFC, 8/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Aug 7, The death toll in an
Israeli airstrike on a Shiite neighborhood in south Beirut reached 41.
Across the country 77 Lebanese were killed along with three Israeli
soldiers. The UN said an oil spill caused by Israeli raids on a
Lebanese power plant could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster that
despoiled the Alaskan coast if not urgently addressed. the Jiyyeh
plant, which was bombed by Israel on July 14 and July 15 a few days
into its offensive against Hezbollah. 12,000 tons of leaking oil had
already polluted more than 140 kilometers (87 miles) of the Lebanese
coast and spread north into Syrian waters.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)(AFP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 8, Israeli forces battled
Hezbollah guerrillas across southern Lebanon as diplomats at the United
Nations struggled to keep a peace plan from collapsing over Arab
demands for an immediate Israeli withdrawal. At least 19 Lebanese
civilians were killed in Israeli airstrikes. Israel reported five
soldiers killed.
(AP, 8/8/06)(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 9, Israel's Security
Cabinet approved a wider ground offensive in south Lebanon that was
expected to take 30 days as part of a new push to badly damage
Hezbollah. Al-Jazeera reported that 11 Israeli soldiers were killed in
heavy fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas near the border in south
Lebanon. Israeli's military struck Lebanon's largest Palestinian
refugee camp, killing at least one person and wounding three others.
(AP, 8/9/06)
2006 Aug 10, Israel said it will
hold back on its new ground offensive in Lebanon until the weekend to
give cease-fire efforts another chance. In Jerusalem a tourist (25) was
stabbed to death by an Arab youth near one of the gates to the walled
Old City in what was believed to be a political attack.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 11, Israeli airstrikes
pounded south Beirut and border crossings to Syria, killing at least 14
people across Lebanon as ground fighting picked up intensity in the
south. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accepted an emerging Mideast
cease-fire deal and informed the United States of his decision. An
Israeli drone fired at a convoy of refugees fleeing southern Lebanon,
killing at least six people and wounding 16.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 11, The UN Human Rights
Council condemned Israel for "massive bombardment of Lebanese civilian
populations" and other "systematic" human rights violations, and
decided to send a commission to investigate. UN Resolution 1701 called
for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
(AP, 8/11/06)(Econ, 8/26/06,
p.11)(www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sc8808.doc.htm)
2006 Aug 12, Israel staged
wide-ranging airstrikes and sent commandos into the Hezbollah heartland
as the UN raced to begin enforcing its new cease-fire blueprint and
stop the heavy fighting still raging in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah
leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the militant organization would
abide by the UN cease-fire resolution but would keep fighting as long
as Israeli troops remained in southern Lebanon. Israel lost 24
soldiers, including five on a helicopter shot out of the air by
guerrillas.
(AP, 8/12/06)(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 12, The UN Security
Council adopted a resolution seeking a "full cessation" of violence
between Israel and Hezbollah, offering the region its best chance yet
for peace after a month of fighting that has killed more than 800
people and inflamed Mideast tensions.
(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 13, After a stormy
debate, Israel's Cabinet approved a Mideast cease-fire, agreeing to
silence the army's guns on Aug 14 at 8AM. The Israeli military embarked
on a last-minute push to devastate Hezbollah guerrillas, rocketing
south Beirut with at least 20 missiles. Israeli warplanes fired
missiles into gasoline stations in the southern port city of Tyre,
killing at least 12 people in those and other attacks. Hezbollah fired
more than 150 rockets at northern Israel, killing an Israeli man. Two
Israeli air raids on a village in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley killed
at least seven people and wounded nearly two dozen.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 14, Israeli soldiers
killed six Hezbollah fighters in three skirmishes in Lebanon after the
UN-imposed cease-fire took effect. The clashes came as Lebanese
civilians defied an Israeli travel ban and streamed back to their homes
in war-ravaged areas. Lebanese, Israeli and UN officers met on the
border to discuss the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern
Lebanon and the deployment of the Lebanese army in the region. Lebanon
said nearly 791 people were killed since the fighting began. Israel
said 116 soldiers and 39 civilians were killed in fighting or from
Hezbollah rockets in the 34-day war.
(AP, 8/14/06)
2006 Aug 15, Israel began slowly
withdrawing its forces from southern Lebanon and made plans to hand
over its captured territory as hopes were raised that a UN-imposed
cease-fire would stick, despite early tests on its first day.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 16, Top foreign diplomats
planned the dispatch of a 15,000-strong international force to enforce
a cease-fire in southern Lebanon, but the government was divided over
whether Hezbollah should lay down its arms or even withdraw them from
the border with Israel.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 17, Lebanese troops,
tanks and armored vehicles deployed south of the Litani River, a key
provision of the UN cease-fire plan that ended fighting between Israel
and Hezbollah. The deployment marks a first step toward extending
government control in a region Lebanese troops have largely avoided for
four decades. A Middle East Airlines passenger jet flew into Beirut
airport from Jordan as officials partially lifted a 36-day Israeli air
blockade.
(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 18, The Lebanese army
reached the country's southern border with Israel for the first time in
decades, sending a lone jeep on patrol through Kfar Kila, a battered
stronghold of support for Hezbollah militants. At least 845 Lebanese
were killed in the 34-day war: 743 civilians, 34 soldiers and 68
Hezbollah. Israel says it killed about 530 guerrillas. On the Israeli
side, 157 were killed, 118 soldiers and 39 civilians, many from the
3,970 Hezbollah rockets. The Lebanese government estimated
infrastructure damages at $2.5 billion. The Lebanese death toll was
later raised to 1200 and economic costs put to some $12 billion.
(AP, 8/18/06)(SFC, 8/19/06, p.C1)(Econ, 11/11/06,
p.51)
2006 Aug 19, Israeli commandos
raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep inside Lebanon, sparking a fierce
clash with militants that left one Israeli soldier dead. Lebanon called
the raid a "flagrant violation" of the UN-brokered cease-fire, while
Israel said it was aimed at disrupting arms smuggling from Iran and
Syria. A Lebanese civilian was killed when unexploded Israeli munitions
from the offensive detonated in the village of Ras al-Ein, outside Tyre.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 19, French soldiers
landed in Lebanon, the first reinforcements for an expanded UN
peacekeeping force tasked with keeping the truce in the
Israel-Hezbollah conflict. About 50 French troops, military engineers,
were to prepare for the arrival of 200 more soldiers expected next week.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 20, Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora called the Israeli bombing campaign "a crime against humanity,"
and Lebanon's defense minister warned any group that breaks the Middle
East cease-fire will be dealt with harshly.
(AP, 8/20/06)
2006 Aug 21, Police raided the
official residence of Israeli President Moshe Katsav as part of a
sexual harassment investigation, seizing computers and documents.
Israeli troops shot two Hezbollah guerrillas during a clash in the
southern Lebanese village of Chamaa.
(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Aug 23, Syria opposed
deployment of an international force along its border to prevent arms
shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel called the situation in Lebanon
"explosive." In southern Lebanon 3 Lebanese soldiers were killed while
they dismantled an unexploded missile. An Israeli soldier was killed
and three others wounded in southern Lebanon when their tank drove over
a land mine.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 24, Jihad Hamad (20), the
second main suspect in a failed plot to bomb two German trains, was
arrested in his native Lebanon after surrendering to police.
(AP, 8/24/06)
2006 Aug 25, The UN said
unexploded cluster bomb litter homes, gardens and highways in south
Lebanon, as the US State Department reportedly investigated whether
Israel's use of the American-made weapons violated secret agreements
with the United States.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 25, German police
arrested a 3rd suspect in connection with a failed attempt to blow up
two trains. Lebanese authorities picked up a 4th man believed to have
been involved.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 30, Lebanese PM Fuad
Saniora said that he refused to have any direct contact with Israel and
that Lebanon would be the last Arab country to ever sign a peace deal
with the Jewish state. Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian chief, accused
Israel of "shocking" and "completely immoral" behavior for dropping
large numbers of cluster bombs on Lebanon when a cease-fire in its war
with Hezbollah was in sight.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Aug 31, The Israeli army said
that it has transferred control over a portion of the Israel-Lebanon
border to Lebanese and international troops for the first time in two
decades.
(AP, 8/31/06)
2006 Sep 1, Spain's Cabinet
approved sending 1,100 troops to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon,
calling it a "legitimate" mission to help maintain peace in the region.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said that Syria had pledged to step up border patrols and
work with the Lebanese army to stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 2, Hezbollah announced
the death of Hajj Ali Mohammed Saleh Bilal, a military commander, from
wounds suffered in monthlong fighting with Israel.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, Italian soldiers
poured into Lebanon, part of the first large contingent of
international troops dispatched to boost the UN force keeping the peace
between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 2, Indonesia said it will
send up to 1,000 troops to southern Lebanon by the month's end, after
Israel dropped objections to its participation in the U.N. peacekeeping
force.
(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 4, In Lebanon US civil
rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson met with Hezbollah officials and
called on them to show proof that two captured Israeli soldiers are
still alive. A UN spokesman said Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
agreed to requests by Hezbollah and Israel that he mediate in
negotiations over the release of two abducted Israeli soldiers. Qatar
announced that it would contribute 200 to 300 troops to the UN
peacekeeping force in Lebanon, making the Persian Gulf state the first
Arab country to commit soldiers to the peace effort in Lebanon.
(AP, 9/4/06)
2006 Sep 5, Israeli forces left
five villages in southern Lebanon and were replaced by Lebanese troops,
who also moved into the center of a Hezbollah stronghold devastated by
weeks of fighting.
(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 5, In south Lebanon a
remote-controlled bomb wounded a senior police intelligence officer who
played a key role in the investigation into the slaying of a former
Lebanese prime minister. Four of the officer's aides and bodyguards
were killed in the sophisticated attack.
(AP, 9/5/06)
2006 Sep 5, Turkey became the
first Muslim country with diplomatic ties to Israel to pledge troops to
an expanding international peacekeeping force that will monitor a
fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 7, Workers at Lebanon's
only airport prepared to receive a full flow of commercial flights.
Israel began lifting its air blockade of Lebanon, but the naval
blockade will remain in place until troops from the new UN
international force are in place.
(AP, 9/7/06)
2006 Sep 8, Israel lifted its
nearly two-month naval blockade of Lebanon after European warships
began patrolling to keep out weapons shipments for Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 9, Italy's PM Romano
Prodi said Syria has agreed "in principle" to a European Union presence
on its border to help stem the flow of weapons into Lebanon.
(AP, 9/9/06)
2006 Sep 11, In Lebanon an angry
protester accusing Tony Blair of complicity in the Israeli bombardment
of Lebanon disrupted a news conference. Thousands of demonstrators
shouted outside as the British prime minister visited Beirut. Blair
pledged help in rebuilding war-ravaged Lebanon.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, China said it will
send 1,000 peacekeeping troops to Lebanon.
(WSJ, 9/12/06, p.A1)
2006 Sep 18, Premier Wen Jiabao
said China will increase its peacekeeping force in Lebanon to 1,000 and
double the humanitarian aid it has pledged.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 18, Israel said it will
consider freeing Palestinian prisoners and releasing millions of
dollars in tax rebates to Palestinians if their government moderates
its hardline views. Israel charged three Hezbollah members arrested in
Lebanon during the recent war with murder for involvement in deadly
attacks on soldiers.
(AP, 9/18/06)
2006 Sep 22, Some 800,000
Hezbollah supporters packed a 37-acre square in the suburbs of Beirut
to hear leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. In his first public appearance
since the start of his group's 34-day war with Israel, he said his
group has more than 20,000 rockets, and that an increased UN
peacekeeping force will not hurt its guerrillas' arsenal.
(SFC, 9/23/06, p.A7)(AP, 9/25/06)
2006 Sep 23, The TV series “The
Renegades,” directed by Najdat Anzour of Syria, began showing in
Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world. It fictionalized the
devastating effects of terrorism on Muslim families.
(SFC, 10/4/06, p.A7)
2006 Sep 24, Samir Geagea, an
anti-Syrian Christian leader, dismissed Hezbollah's claims of victory
in its war with Israel as tens of thousands of his supporters rallied
in a show of strength that highlighted Lebanon's sharp divisions.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Oct 1, The Israeli army
abandoned positions in Lebanon, withdrawing the last of its troops from
its neighbor and fulfilling a key condition of the Aug. 14 cease-fire
that ended a monthlong war against Hezbollah.
(AP, 10/1/06)
2006 Oct 6, In Lebanon police
clashed with hundreds of rioters protesting attempts to demolish
illegal housing in a southern suburb of Beirut. One person was killed
and at least 16 were wounded.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2006 Oct 15, In Lebanon a small
grenade exploded after it was fired at a building near UN offices in a
downtown Beirut square injuring four people.
(AP, 10/15/06)
2006 Oct 22, An Israeli Cabinet
minister said the Israeli army used phosphorous artillery shells
against Hezbollah guerrilla targets during their war in Lebanon this
summer, confirming Lebanese allegations for the first time. Israel's
defense minister said that air force flights over Lebanon would
continue because arms smuggling to Lebanese guerrillas has not stopped.
(AP, 10/22/06)
2006 Oct 31, A joint British and
Lebanese initiative in London launched the world's first qualification
covering all aspects of Islamic finance. The Islamic Finance
Qualification (IFQ) was developed by British industry body the
Securities and Investment Institute (SII) and Lebanese business school
Ecole Superieure des Affaires.
(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 5, A bomb exploded near
police barracks in Beirut, the latest in a series of attacks targeting
police in the Lebanese capital.
(AP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 10, A first batch of
Indonesian troops arrived in Beirut to join a UN peacekeeping force,
whose commander warned of growing tensions in south Lebanon.
(AFP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 11, In Lebanon 5 Shiite
ministers backed by Hezbollah resigned from the government. PM Fuad
Saniora refused to acknowledge the resignation.
(SSFC, 11/12/06, p.A21)
2006 Nov 13, The Lebanese
government approved a UN draft setting up an international tribunal to
try suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri. A London-based Arabic newspaper said Al-Qaida has purportedly
issued a statement threatening to topple Lebanon's "corrupt"
Western-backed government.
(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 14, The UN called
Lebanon's approval of an international tribunal for the suspected
killers of former PM Rafik Hariri "an important step" toward fulfilling
the requirements of a Security Council resolution.
(AP, 11/14/06)
2006 Nov 19, In Lebanon Sheik
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, urged his followers to prepare
for mass demonstrations to topple the government if it ignores the
militant group's demand to form a national unity coalition.
(AP, 11/19/06)
2006 Nov 21, In Lebanon prominent
anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a
suburb of Beirut.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 23, In Lebanon allies of
Pierre Gemayel, a slain Christian government minister, turned his
funeral into a powerful demonstration of anger against Syria as some
800,000 jammed downtown Beirut to pay their respects.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 24, In Lebanon factories,
banks and schools closed on orders from business leaders, who demanded
a resolution to the political crisis before it spirals into wider
violence. A cluster bomb left over from Israel's war against Hezbollah
in southern Lebanon wounded two members of an international team of
land mine-clearing experts.
(AP, 11/24/06)(AP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 25, Hezbollah renewed its
threat to stage mass protests aimed at bringing down Lebanon's
US-backed government as the Cabinet scheduled meeting to vote on an
international tribunal to try suspects in the killing of a former prime
minister.
(AP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 25, A third batch of
Indonesians left to join a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, bringing
the Asian nation's Middle East deployment to more than 830 troops.
(AP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 25, A UN agency said that
Israel laid mines in Lebanon during this summer's war between the
Jewish state and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group, the first time
Israel has been accused of planting mines during the latest fighting.
(AP, 11/25/06)
2006 Nov 27, A UN food agency said
Lebanon's agriculture sector suffered about $280 million in damage
during this summer's conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
(AP, 11/27/06)
2006 Dec 1, In Lebanon at least a
million people loyal to Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian opposition allies
massed in downtown Beirut seeking to force the resignation of
Western-backed PM Fuad Saniora, who was holed up in his office ringed
by hundreds of police and combat troops.
(AP, 12/1/06)(SFC, 12/2/06, p.A1)
2006 Dec 2, In Lebanon thousands
of Hezbollah supporters camped out in tents in central Beirut as the
Shiite Muslim guerrilla group and its allies kept up the pressure on
the US-backed government of Fuad Saniora to resign.
(AP, 12/2/06)
2006 Dec 7, Lebanon's
Hezbollah-led opposition called for its supporters to take to the
streets this weekend in a massive show of force, stepping up the
pressure on the US-backed government, which has vowed not to give in to
protesters.
(AP, 12/7/06)
2006 Dec 10, Thousands of
Hezbollah-led protesters gathered in downtown Beirut, demanding PM Fuad
Saniora cede some power to the opposition or step down.
(AP, 12/10/06)
2006 Dec 12, The UN inquiry into
the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said
it has now identified suspects and witnesses and found possible links
to 14 other murders or attempted murders in Lebanon in the last two
years.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Beirut Mahmoud
Komati, deputy chief of Hezbollah's politburo, said that around 250
members of the guerrilla group were killed in the summer war with
Israel, the highest toll acknowledged by the Shiite Muslim movement.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 21, In Lebanon police
arrested four people and seized a large quantities of weapons,
explosives and fuses in raids against a pro-Syrian party.
(AP, 12/21/06)
2006 Dec 28, Tallies by government
agencies, humanitarian groups and The Associated Press said more than
1,000 Lebanese civilians and combatants died during the summer war
between Israel's army and Hezbollah guerrillas.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2007 Jan 10, Lebanese trade unions
threatened to escalate protests unless the government drops plans to
raise taxes, adding to troubles for Lebanon's US-backed prime minister
amid an opposition campaign to bring him down.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 23, Hezbollah-led
protesters paralyzed Lebanon, clashing with government supporters and
burning tires and cars on roads in and around the capital to enforce a
general strike aimed at toppling US-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.
Three people were killed and more than 170 wounded.
(AP, 1/24/07)
2007 Jan 25, International donors
pledged $7.6 billion in aid and loans at a conference to raise money
for Lebanon's U.S.-backed prime minister and his economic reform
program. The US pledged to more than triple its economic aid to $770
million including $220 million in military aid. Government and
opposition supporters clashed at a Beirut university campus. At least 3
people were reported killed.
(AP, 1/25/07)(WSJ, 1/26/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 30, The Saudi foreign
minister said Saudi Arabia and Iran are working together to try to calm
the crises in Iraq and Lebanon.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Feb 2, Lebanon's top Sunni
Muslim clerics published a religious edict prohibiting Muslims from
killing their fellow countrymen, particularly other Muslims.
(AP, 2/2/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Lebanon bombs
packed with metal pellets tore through two commuter buses in a mainly
Christian area, a day before the second anniversary of former Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination. At least 3 people were killed
and 20 wounded in the coordinated attack.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 21, Lebanese
anti-aircraft guns fired at Israeli warplanes over southern Lebanon,
indicating that Lebanon's army is taking a new assertiveness toward
Israel.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Mar 8, Lebanese parliamentary
leaders met for the first time in four months in an effort to end a
power struggle that has divided the government and paralyzed the nation.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 15, Interpol said it
plans to issue international requests for the arrest of five prominent
Iranians and a Lebanese militant in connection with the 1994 bombing of
a Jewish cultural center in Argentina.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 19, In northern Lebanon
rival Palestinian factions clashed in a refugee camp, shaking the camp
with explosions and wounding at least two gunmen.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Ali Mussa Dakdouk, a
senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative, was captured in southern Iraq.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Apr 18, The UN Security
Council expressed "serious concern" at mounting reports of weapons
being smuggled from Syria to Lebanon and authorized an independent
mission to evaluate monitoring of the border between the two countries.
(AP, 4/18/07)
2007 Apr 26, Police in Lebanon
found the bodies of a man and a 12-year-old boy who disappeared earlier
this week, an incident that has shaken the country and sparked fears of
renewed sectarian violence.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 May 14, Lebanon's prime
minister asked the UN Security Council to impose an international
tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of former premier
Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 20, Lebanese tanks
pounded a militant group's headquarters in the Nahr al-Bared
Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli after the northern city's worst
clashes in two decades killed 13 soldiers and 17 militants. The raid
that triggered the clashes was part of a police search for suspects in
a bank robbery a day earlier in Amyoun, a town southeast of Tripoli.
Gunmen of the radical jihadist faction known as Fatah al-Islam made off
with $125,000 in cash in the robbery. The siege lasted 106 days leaving
47 civilians, 167 Lebanese soldiers and some 287 guerrillas dead.
(AP, 5/20/07)(Econ, 5/26/07, p.47)(Econ, 5/10/08,
p.57)
2007 May 21, Lebanese troops
pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery and tank fire for a
second day, raising huge palls of smoke as they battled a militant
group suspected of ties to al-Qaida in the worst eruption of violence
since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 22, In Lebanon a convoy
of UN relief supplies was hit in renewed fighting as it tried to enter
the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared. At least 15 civilians
were left dead or wounded. Lebanon asked the US for $280 million in
military assistance.
(AP, 5/22/07)(WSJ, 5/23/07, p.A1)
2007 May 23, In Lebanon hundreds
of Palestinian civilians carrying their belongings in plastic bags
trickled out of a besieged refugee camp, taking advantage of a truce in
fighting that mostly held overnight.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 24, In Lebanon sporadic
gunfire erupted inside the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp where Islamic
militants are holed up after refusing an ultimatum by Lebanon's defense
minister to surrender or face a military onslaught. Lebanon's leader
vowed to uproot the fighters. The family of Shaker Youssef al-Absi, the
Palestinian who heads the shadowy militant group blamed for this week's
violence in Lebanon, said he is not a terrorist but a nationalist who
seeks an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 29, Lebanon’s army
clashed with al-Qaida-linked Islamic fighters in a Palestinian refugee
camp, breaking a weeklong truce.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 30, A UN resolution gave
the Lebanese parliament a last chance to establish a tribunal to
prosecute the killers of former PM Rafik Hariri. If it doesn't act by
June 10, the UN decision will automatically "enter into force." A
military judge filed terrorism charges against 20 suspected members of
an Islamic militant group fighting Lebanese troops at a Palestinian
refugee camp.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 1, Dozens of Lebanese
army tanks and armored carriers moved toward a Palestinian refugee camp
in northern Lebanon in pursuit of Islamic militants holed up inside. 19
people died in some of the heaviest fighting since violence broke out
on May 20.
(AP, 6/1/07)(WSJ, 6/2/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 2, The Lebanese air force
joined tanks and artillery in pounding Islamic militant hideouts on the
second day of an intensifying offensive to uproot al-Qaida-inspired
gunmen barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 3, Heavy gunfire rang out
from inside a bombed out Palestinian refugee camp as the Lebanese army
pounded Islamic militants holed up inside during the third day of a
military offensive aimed at crushing the al-Qaida-inspired group.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, Violence sparked by a
two-week old confrontation between the Lebanese army and al-Qaida
inspired militants spread to a second Palestinian refugee camp in the
southern part of the country, killing two soldiers.
(AP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 6, A Palestinian security
force fanned out in two neighborhoods of the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp
in southern Lebanon to prevent further clashes between Islamic
militants and Lebanese troops. Maj. Gen. Khaled Aref, a senior Fatah
commander based in Ein el-Hilweh, said on Lebanese Broadcasting Corp.
television that about 20 Fatah Islam fighters had surrendered to his
group in besieged Nahr el-Bared.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 7, In eastern Lebanon
troops discovered three vehicles rigged with explosives during a raid
on a hideout.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jun 8, Lebanese troops
battled al-Qaida-inspired militants in a Palestinian refugee camp where
violence has raged for three weeks. The clashes in northern Lebanon
came hours after a bombing in a Christian town northeast of Beirut
killed at least one man.
(AP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 9, Lebanon's army pounded
Islamic militants hiding in a Palestinian refugee camp in renewed heavy
clashes following a few days of intermittent fighting.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 11, In Lebanon 2 local
Red Cross workers helping coordinate negotiations between the Lebanese
army and Islamic militants were shot to death at the Nahr el-Bared
camp. Fighting also killed 4 soldiers.
(AP, 6/11/07)(WSJ, 6/12/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 13, In Lebanon lawmaker
Walid Eido, a prominent anti-Syrian legislator killed by a car bomb,
which also killed his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six
passers-by.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 15, Lebanese troops
raided an Islamic militant position inside a besieged Palestinian
refugee camp, sparking a battle that killed at least four soldiers in
renewed fighting.
(AP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 18, Fierce fighting
erupted at a besieged Palestinian refugee camp as Lebanese troops
resumed bombardment of al-Qaida-inspired militants barricaded inside.
Three Lebanese soldiers were killed.
(AP, 6/18/07)
2007 Jun 19, A Lebanese soldier
was killed in clashes with al-Qaida-inspired militants in a Palestinian
refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
(AP, 6/19/07)
2007 Jun 24, Lebanese troops
raided an apartment complex suspected of housing Islamic militants in
the northern port city of Tripoli, sparking a gunbattle that left 10
people dead, including a soldier and 6 gunmen. A bombing killed 6
members of Spanish UN peacekeepers, including 3 Colombians, and
seriously wounded two others.
(AP, 6/24/07)(AP, 6/25/07)
2007 Jun 28, Lebanese troops
killed at least six Islamic militants during a gunbattle in northern
Lebanon.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jun 29, In Lebanon government
soldiers shot at angry Palestinian demonstrators trying to march home
to their besieged camp, and two people were reported killed and 29
wounded.
(AP, 6/30/07)
2007 Jun, The UN numbered
Palestinians in Lebanon at 420,000, but a quiet exodus was believed to
have reduced the number to 250,000. They were overwhelmingly Sunni
Muslims and had no right to own property, and no right to receive state
schooling or medical care.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.46)
2007 Jul 12, The Lebanese army
pounded a Palestinian refugee camp with artillery fire, but the
military denied reports that the action was part of a final assault on
the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded inside.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 13, In north Lebanon
Islamic militants fired back volleys of rockets at the Lebanese army as
troops pounded the remaining suspected hideouts of the Fatah Islam
fighters holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 14, Lebanon's political
factions including the pro-Syrian opposition Hezbollah began two days
of talks in France to try to ease the deadlock paralyzing the nation.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 15, Militants holed up in
a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon fired more rockets that
landed in farm fields outside the camp as the army bombarded suspected
hideouts inside the besieged settlement. Politicians from Lebanon's
divided factions held a second day of talks in France to try to ease 8
months of deadlock.
(AP, 7/15/07)(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 16, In northern Lebanon
fierce fighting erupted at a besieged Palestinian refugee camp as army
troops pounded the remaining hideouts of al-Qaida-inspired militants
holed up inside with artillery and tank fire. 4 soldiers were killed in
fighting. Troops captured two militants while pursuing the fighters in
the camp's old neighborhoods.
(AP, 7/16/07)(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 17, In Lebanon militants
continued to resist the army's advance. Security officials said Army
troops are making "significant" gains in their long-running battle
against al-Qaida-inspired fighters barricaded inside a Palestinian
refugee camp in northern Lebanon. At least 60 militants and more than
20 civilians have been killed in fighting since May 20.
(AP, 7/17/07)
2007 Jul 20, Lebanon’s army used
loudspeakers to urge Islamic extremists inside a Palestinian refugee
camp in northern Lebanon to surrender, as sporadic fighting continued.
(AP, 7/20/07)
2007 Jul 22, In northern Lebanon 3
Lebanese soldiers were killed in sporadic fighting with
al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants barricaded in a Palestinian refugee
camp.
(AP, 7/23/07)
2007 Jul 25, Lebanese army troops
unleashed barrages of artillery and tank shells at Islamic militants in
a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 29, France's visiting
foreign minister succeeded in bringing together rival Lebanese factions
who have had no contact for months but said he had not reached a
breakthrough to ease the country's political crisis.
(AP, 7/29/07)
2007 Jul 30, In northern Lebanon
the army unleashed tank and artillery fire on the remaining hideouts of
al-Qaida-inspired militants holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul, In Beirut, Lebanon,
construction firms broke ground in the Dahiya district, a Shiite
enclave razed by bombs during last year’s war with Israel. Hezbollah
organized the project by collection war-compensation checks from
volunteering residents.
(WSJ, 9/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 1, Two Lebanese soldiers
were killed in heavy fighting with al-Qaida-inspired militants holed up
in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, Lebanon's most senior
Shiite Muslim cleric issued a religious edict banning honor killings,
calling the custom of murdering a female relative for sexual misconduct
"a repulsive act." More fierce fighting erupted as troops pounded the
remaining Fatah Islam hideouts in the camp with artillery and tank
fire. Two more Lebanese soldiers were killed in heavy fighting with the
al-Qaida-inspired militants.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 5, Army and police
patrols stood guard as thousands of Lebanese went to polling stations
to vote in a key election to replace two assassinated lawmakers. A
little-known opposition candidate defeated a former president in a
tense parliament by-election that showed the divisions among Lebanon's
once-dominant Christians. Pro-Syrian Parliament speaker Nabih Berri has
said he would not recognize the results of the two by-elections because
they were called by what he and the rest of the opposition consider an
illegitimate government. The by-elections were held despite the refusal
of the president, Lahoud, to approve them, as required.
(AP, 8/5/07)(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 6, Lebanon’s government
said that police have killed Abu Hureira, the deputy commander of
al-Qaida inspired militants. He was killed a few days ago by police in
the northern port city of Tripoli, near the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp
where Fatah Islam militants have been fighting Lebanese soldiers for
more than two months.
(AP, 8/6/07)
2007 Aug 17, The UN announced that
the Netherlands has agreed to host the tribunal that will prosecute
suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 8/17/07)
2007 Aug 18, In northern Lebanon
gunbattles with Islamic extremists in a Palestinian refugee camp left
one soldier dead. Another died of wounds the next day.
(AP, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 23, A cluster bomb left
over from last year's Hezbollah-Israel war exploded in southern
Lebanon, killing a Lebanese mine-clearing expert and wounding three
others who were trying to dismantle it.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 24, A deal was reached
with Islamic extremists holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in
northern Lebanon to allow their families to leave the besieged area.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously to keep peacekeepers in
Lebanon for another 12 months.
(AP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 31, Lebanese army
helicopters stepped up raids on al-Qaida-inspired Islamic militants
barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp in the country's north after
five soldiers were killed over the last 2 days.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 2, In Lebanon the last
militant stronghold of a Palestinian refugee camp devastated by more
than 3 months of fighting fell to the army. The army killed 39
militants and captured at least 15 others as they tried to break out of
the Nahr el-Bared camp. 5 soldiers were killed in the 2-day fight,
raising to 158 the number of troops killed in the conflict that began
May 20. The dead also included over 20 civilians and over 60 militants.
Shaker Abbsi, leader of the Fatah al Islam militants, managed to escape.
(AP, 9/2/07)(SFC, 9/3/07, p.A13)(SFC, 9/11/07, p.A4)
2007 Sep 3, In Lebanon troops
exchanged fire with fleeing militants killing 4 and capturing 2.
(SFC, 9/4/07, p.A14)
2007 Sep 15, Lebanese troops
captured Abu Salim Taha, the spokesman for Fatah Islam, and 3 other
militants.
(AP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 19, Antoine Ghanem (64),
an anti-Syrian lawmaker from the Christian Phalange Party, was killed
in a blast in Beirut. Six other people also died.
(AP, 9/10/07)
2007 Oct 1, In Lebanon Nasser
Ismail, a suspected senior commander of the Fatah Islam militant group,
was captured by Palestinian refugees and turned over to the Lebanese
military after he spent weeks in hiding.
(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 20,
The foreign ministers of France, Italy and Spain met with
Lebanon's feuding political leaders in a bid to break a long-running
deadlock that is preventing the election of a president.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Nov 13, In a letter to the UN
Security Council, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon nominated Canadian
prosecutor Daniel Bellemare to lead the UN investigation into the 2005
killing of former Lebanese PM Rafik al-Hariri.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 23, Lebanon's parliament
failed to elect a successor to President Emile Lahoud just hours before
he was set to leave office after it was unable to convene due to an
opposition boycott. Emile Lahoud left office without a successor after
announcing he was handing over security powers to the army.
(AP, 11/23/07)(AP, 11/23/08)
2007 Nov 24, Lebanon awoke a
republic without a president amid mounting worries over a power vacuum
that has intensified the nation's yearlong political turmoil.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 27, Lebanon's top Shiite
cleric declared that a Muslim woman is allowed to fight back in
self-defense if she is hit by her husband, in a ruling rare for the
region's male-dominated Islamic society.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 28, A lawmaker said the
largest bloc in Lebanon's deadlocked parliament has dropped its
opposition to the army chief becoming president, bringing Gen. Michel
Suleiman a step closer to being the new head of state and ending a
yearlong political crisis.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Dec 12, A car bomb attack
killed one of Lebanon's top generals and at least two other people.
Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj (55), a top Maronite Catholic in the command,
was considered a leading candidate to succeed the head of the military,
Gen. Michel Suleiman, if Suleiman is elected president.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 30, President Nicolas
Sarkozy said France will have no more contact with Syria until Damascus
shows its willingness to let Lebanon end its current crisis and appoint
a new president.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Bernard Rougier’s “Everyday
Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam Among Palestinians in Lebanon” was
published in English. The French version (Le Jihad au quotidien) was
initially published in 2004.
(WSJ, 6/26/07, p.D5)
2008 Jan 2, In Lebanon Sheik
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader Hezbollah, declared no president will be
elected unless his opposition party gets veto power in the future
government.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 5, Syria joined other
Arab nations in endorsing the head of Lebanon's army as that country's
next president, putting pressure on the Lebanese opposition to drop
demands that have blocked a compromise over the post.
(AP, 1/5/08)
2008 Jan 8, Two rockets fired from
Lebanon struck northern Israel overnight, expanding the violence that
has erupted on Israel's other borders ahead of President Bush's visit
to the region. No injuries were reported.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 15, An explosion targeted
a US Embassy vehicle in northern Beirut, killing four Lebanese and
injuring a local embassy employee.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 19, In Lebanon Sheik
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's reclusive leader, claimed the militant
group had the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon during the
2006 war, saying the dead were left behind "in our villages and fields."
(AP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 25, A car bomb ripped
through eastern Beirut, killing Capt. Wissam Eid, Lebanon's top
anti-terrorism investigator, as he returned from a meeting on the probe
into the 2005 assassination of a former prime minister. Three others
died in the blast.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 27, In Lebanon protesters
angry about electricity rationing clashed with troops in Beirut's worst
riots in a year, leaving 7 Shia youths dead.
(AP, 1/27/08)(Econ, 2/2/08, p.56)
2008 Jan 30, The final Winograd
Commission report was announced in Binyanei HaUma in Jerusalem. It had
been commissioned to inquire into Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon.
(Econ, 2/2/08,
p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winograd_Commission)
2008 Feb 2, A Lebanese prosecutor
issued arrest warrants for 11 soldiers and six civilians in connection
with Jan 27 clashes between troops and Shiite Muslim protesters that
left 7 people dead.
(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 3, Israeli forces opened
fire across the Lebanese border, killing one person and wounding
another. The Israeli military said it was responding to fire apparently
from drug smugglers on the Lebanese side.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 29, Hezbollah denounced
the deployment of US warships off Lebanon and said it won't be
intimidated. The US-backed Lebanese government distanced itself from
the military move.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 4, Israel has said
Hezbollah is rearming and has an arsenal that includes 10,000
long-range rockets and 20,000 short-range rockets in southern Lebanon,
according to a report from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 May 6, Lebanon’s government
declared Hezbollah’s military telecommunications network illegal and
said it was a threat to state security. The cabinet removed Beirut
airport’s security chief over alleged ties to Hezbollah.
(WSJ, 5/7/08, p.A1)(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 7, Hezbollah opposition
supporters and government backers exchanged gunfire and threw stones as
a strike by the Shiite militant group paralyzed large parts of Beirut.
Labor unions had called for the strike after rejecting a last-minute
pay raise offer by the government.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 8, In Lebanon violence
spread outside the capital. Sunnis and Shiites exchanged gunfire in the
village of Saadnayel in the eastern Bekaa Valley. Hezbollah's
leader Hassan Nasrallah said a government decision to declare the
Shiite militant group's telecommunications network illegal amounted to
a declaration of war. At least four people were killed and eight
wounded Beirut.
(AP, 5/8/08)(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 9, Shiite Hezbollah
gunmen seized nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Muslim sector from
Sunni foes loyal to the US-backed government in the country's worst
sectarian clashes since the 15-year civil war.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 10, Lebanon's army
command ordered troops to establish security in the capital and called
on all parties to withdraw their gunmen from the streets. An army
statement said an airport security chief fired by the government for
alleged ties to Hezbollah will be kept on. A Shiite Muslim shop owner
opened fire on a funeral procession, killing two people and wounding
six others in a Sunni neighborhood. A total of 25 people have been
killed and dozens wounded in the recent violence.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 11, In Lebanon heavy
fighting broke out between supporters of the Western-backed government
and opposition followers in the central mountains overlooking the
capital. Paramedics said at least 11 people were killed in fighting in
the mountains overlooking Beirut.
(AP, 5/11/08)(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, In Lebanon heavy
fighting broke out between government supporters and opponents in
Tripoli, where the two sides battled with rocket-propelled grenades,
heavy machine guns and mortars.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 13, The Lebanese army
expanded its troop deployment to several tense areas around the
country, saying its soldiers would use force if needed to impose order
after clashes between the US-backed government and Hezbollah-led
opposition.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 15, The Hezbollah-led
opposition and US-backed government reached a deal to end Lebanon's
worst violence since the 1975-90 civil war, now that the Cabinet has
reversed measures aimed at reining in the Iranian-backed militants. The
violence had left at least 81 people dead.
(AP, 5/15/08)(Econ, 5/24/08, p.67)
2008 May 21, Lebanon's feuding
factions reached a breakthrough deal, following talks in Qatar, to end
the country's 18-month political stalemate. The deal gives the militant
Hezbollah group and its allies veto over any government decision.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 25, In Lebanon Michel
Suleiman was elected president. He asked PM Saniora to stay on as
caretaker until a new administration is formed. Cabinet posts will be
distributed according to the Doha agreement: 16 for the majority, 11
for the opposition and three for president, who heads the Cabinet.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 28, In Lebanon PM Fuad
Saniora won a new term with the backing of a pro-American coalition,
angering the Hezbollah-led opposition.
(SFC, 5/29/08, p.A10)
2008 May 31, Lebanese troops shot
and killed a suicide bomber near Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee
camp. The would-be suicide bomber was identified as Mahmoud Yassin
Ahmad, a 28-year-old Palestinian who lived in the Ein el-Hilweh camp.
Earlier in the day a Lebanese soldier was killed in an explosion in the
north of the country.
(AP, 6/1/08)
2008 Jun 17, In Lebanon overnight
clashes between pro- and anti-government supporters left three people
dead and four wounded in the east of the country.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 22, Fighting broke out in
northern Lebanon between pro- and anti-government factions leaving at
least four people dead.
(AP, 6/22/08)
2008 Jun 23, Lebanese security
officials say heavy overnight fighting between pro- and anti-government
supporters in the northern city of Tripoli has left four more dead.
Lebanese troops deployed in Tripoli after 2 days of sectarian fighting
left at least 9 people dead and 42 wounded.
(AP, 6/23/08)(WSJ, 6/24/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 28, In Lebanon at least
one person was killed and 28 others wounded when an explosion ripped
through an apartment building in the northern city of Tripoli. The
explosion was caused by a bomb placed in the first floor of a building
in a district whose Sunni Muslim residents support the government.
(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jun 29, Israel's Cabinet
overwhelmingly voted in favor of a deal with Hezbollah to swap a
notorious Lebanese prisoner for two captured soldiers who were declared
dead earlier in the day. Israel would release Samir Kantar, imprisoned
for a 1979 attack etched in the Israeli psyche as one of the cruelest
in the nation's history. Israel reopened its border crossings with the
Gaza Strip to allow a trickle of goods into the territory.
(AP, 6/29/08)
2008 Jul 7, Israeli troops in
jeeps swooped down on the West Bank town of Nablus, shutting down a
girls' school, a medical center and two other facilities of a
Hamas-affiliated charity. Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell at
a border crossing with the Gaza Strip. Israel's military said it had
begun digging up the bodies of Lebanese fighters after the government
struck a deal with Hezbollah guerrillas to swap five living prisoners
and dozens of bodies for two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006.
(AP, 7/7/08)
2008 Jul 9, In northern Lebanon
heavy fighting erupted between government supporters and Hezbollah's
allies, killing at least 4 people and shattering a truce that lasted
just two weeks.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 11, Lebanon's PM Fuad
Saniora announced a new national unity Cabinet in which Hezbollah and
its allies have veto power over government decisions.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 12, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy met his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak, kicking off
a round of diplomacy with Middle East leaders ahead of an
EU-Mediterranean summit. Sarkozy said that Syria and Lebanon will open
embassies in each other's countries for the first time. Syria's leader
cautioned there was still work to be done before that could happen.
(AP, 7/12/08)(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 15, Israel's Cabinet
overwhelmingly approved an emotionally charged deal to trade a Lebanese
militant convicted of killing three people for two Israeli soldiers
captured by Hezbollah guerrillas and believed to be dead. Israeli
troops arrested three Hamas council members in a dawn raid on the West
Bank city of Nablus. Witnesses and residents said a total of 12 Hamas
members were arrested.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 16, Hezbollah handed over
two black coffins with the bodies of two Israeli soldiers and Israel
freed 5 Lebanese militants, including Samir Kantar, who killed a
4-year-old girl and her father in 1979.
(AP, 7/16/08)(WSJ, 7/17/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 19, In Lebanon the Jund
al-Sham group, which follows the extremist ideology of al-Qaida,
clashed with members of the mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement. Two
other Palestinian militants were killed in the clash.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 20, In Lebanon Shehadeh
Jawhar, military commander of the Jund al-Sham group, died from wounds
in the previous day’s clash with members of the mainstream Palestinian
Fatah movement.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 25, In Lebanon clashes
between Sunni Muslim gunmen and the Alawite broke out at dawn when a
hand grenade was thrown toward a Sunni area. Fighting left one person
dead.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 26, In Lebanon three more
people were killed in the second day of sectarian clashes between
Sunnis and Alawites in northern Lebanon, bringing the total to 9 with
42 wounded.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 28, Lebanese singer
Suzanne Tamim (30) was found stabbed and her throat slashed in Dubai.
On August 8 Egypt banned news coverage of the brutal slaying following
media reports in other papers that said a wealthy Egyptian businessman
ordered 3 men to carry out the killing. On Sep 2 Hisham Talaat
Moustafa, an Egyptian lawmaker and business tycoon, was arrested in the
death Tamim. He was accused of paying a former police officer $2
million to kill her. On May 21, 2009, Moustafa was sentenced to death
for ordering Tamim’s death. Former officer, Mohsen el-Sukkary, was also
convicted and sentenced to death.
(AP,
8/13/08)(www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=21342)(AP, 9/2/08)(AP,
5/21/09)
2008 Jul 30, In Lebanon gunmen
attacked a Lebanese military post in the country's east, killing one
soldier and wounding another.
(AP, 7/30/08)
2008 Aug 12, The Lebanese
parliament overwhelmingly approved the country's national unity Cabinet
after a five-day debate on a controversial policy that upholds
Hezbollah's right to keep its weapons.
(AP, 8/12/08)
2008 Aug 13, In northern Lebanese
city a bomb ripped through a bus during morning rush hour in Tripoli,
killing 18 soldiers and civilians, raising fears that an
al-Qaida-inspired militant group is stepping up revenge attacks against
the military.
(AP, 8/13/08)
2008 Aug 14, Syria agreed to a
longtime Lebanese demand to negotiate the demarcation of their border a
day after the countries said they would establish full diplomatic
relations for the first time.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 22, Lebanon’s cabinet
approved diplomatic ties with Syria and the opening of an embassy in
Damascus.
(WSJ, 8/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Aug 27, The UN Security
Council voted unanimously to keep a peacekeeping force in Lebanon for
another year, calling for stepped-up efforts to achieve a permanent
cease-fire and long-term resolution of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
(AP, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 28, In Lebanon attackers
opened fire on a military helicopter, killing a Lebanese army officer
and forcing the craft to make an emergency landing. The next day
Hezbollah handed over a man suspected of firing on the helicopter.
(AP, 8/28/08)(AP, 8/29/08)
2008 Sep 1, Most of the Muslim
Mideast began the first day of Ramadan, but Iraqi Shiites, some
Lebanese Shiites and Iran will start observing the holy month of
fasting on Sep 2.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 8, In Lebanon rival
groups signed an agreement to end sectarian violence that has killed
and wounded scores in the past three months in the northern city of
Tripoli.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 10, In Lebanon Druse
Sheik Saleh Aridi died in his village of Baissour in the hills east of
Beirut, after a bomb planted under his car was detonated by remote
control as he drove away from his home. The country's first political
assassination in months threatened efforts to reconcile its divided
factions.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 17, In northern Lebanon a
gunfight between two rival Christian groups has left two people dead
and three wounded.
(AP, 9/17/08)
2008 Sep 29, In northern Lebanon a
car bomb exploded near a military bus carrying troops going to work,
killing at least five people and injuring 25 others. Two more people
died from their wounds the next day, raising the total death toll to
seven.
(AP, 9/29/08)(AP, 9/30/08)
2008 Oct 6, The United States and
Lebanon set up a joint military commission to bolster military
cooperation, a move that follows the first visit by the newly elected
Lebanese president to Washington.
(AP, 10/6/08)
2008 Oct 9, Two American
journalists, Holli Chmela (27) and Taylor Luck (23), who went missing
during a vacation in Lebanon eight days ago were released in Syria and
returned to Jordan. The next day they said they had been "kidnapped" by
their taxi driver and taken into Syria, where they were held in custody
for a week before being released.
(AP, 10/9/08)(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 14, Syria established
diplomatic relations with Lebanon, ending six decades of
non-recognition of its neighbor's sovereignty in an apparent bid to
curry favor with the West as it pursues indirect peace talks with
Israel.
(AP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 15, The foreign ministers
of Syria and Lebanon signed an agreement formalizing diplomatic ties
between the two countries for the first time in their turbulent history.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Nov 21, A shootout between
Lebanese soldiers and a group of gunmen in the northern port city of
Tripoli left one of the gunmen dead and two wounded.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, Germany banned
Hezbollah's Lebanon-based satellite television station on grounds that
it violates the country's constitution.
(AP, 11/23/08)
2008 Dec 19, In Lebanon thousands
of Hezbollah supporters protested the Israeli blockade on the Gaza
Strip.
(AP, 12/19/08)
2008 Dec 25, Lebanese army
officers discovered seven rockets set up with timers that were on the
verge of firing near the border with Israel.
(AP, 12/25/08)
2008 Dec, Moscow agreed to provide
Lebanon with 10 MiG-29 fighter jets. A few days later Washington
promised to deliver tanks to Beirut.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2008 Sandra Mackey authored
“Mirror of the Arab World: Lebanon in Conflict.”
(SFC, 3/22/08, p.E2)
2009 Jan 8, The UN halted aid
deliveries to the besieged Gaza Strip, citing Israeli attacks on its
staff and installations hours after it said tank fire killed one of its
drivers as he went to pick up a shipment. For a 2nd straight day,
Israel suspended its Gaza military operation for three hours to allow
in humanitarian supplies. Israel killed at least 11 people, including
three who were fleeing their homes, raising the death toll from its
13-day offensive to 699 Palestinians. 11 Israelis have died since the
offensive began Dec. 27. Militants in Lebanon fired at least three
rockets into Israel.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 11, An estimated 2,500
Lebanese and Palestinians protested peacefully in downtown Beirut
against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, as hundreds of
demonstrators in neighboring Syria shouted insults at the both the
Jewish state and Arab leaders.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 14, Guerrillas in Lebanon
rocketed northern Israel for the second time in a week, drawing Israeli
artillery fire and threatening to drag the Jewish state into a second
front as diplomatic efforts to broker a truce in Gaza intensified. Gaza
health ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said the offensive has
killed 1,000 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 300
children. The Israeli navy intercepted an Iranian ship loaded with
medicine, food and clothing destined for Gaza and forced the vessel to
Egypt instead. Palestinian surveyors estimated that Israel's fierce
assault on Gaza's Hamas rulers has destroyed at least $1.4 billion
worth of buildings, roads, pipes, power lines and other infrastructure.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Feb 4, Poland’s defense
minister stated plans to end military missions in Lebanon, the Golan
Heights and Chad in an effort to cut spending due to the global
economic crisis.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 5, The Israeli navy
intercepted a ship delivering 60 tons of supplies to the Gaza Strip
from Lebanon in the latest bid to defy Israel's blockade of the
militant-held territory.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 21, Two rockets were
fired from south Lebanon at Israel, with one slamming into a mostly
Christian Arab village and causing minor injuries to at least one
Israeli.
(AP, 2/21/09)
2009 Feb 25, In Lebanon 3 men
jailed for more than three years in the assassination of former PM
Rafik Hariri were set free on bail, days before an international
tribunal was to begin trying the case. Brothers Mahmoud and Ahmed
Abdel-Al, a member of a pro-Syrian Sunni Muslim fundamentalist group,
were detained in 2005. Syrian Ibrahim Jarjoura, was arrested in 2006 on
suspicion he gave false evidence and misled the investigation.
(AP, 2/25/09)
2009 Mar 16, Lebanon opened its
first-ever embassy in Syria in another sign of improving ties between
the long-feuding neighbors.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 23, In southern Lebanon
an explosion killed Kamal Madhat (55), a senior Fatah official, and
three of his bodyguards as they were leaving a Palestinian refugee camp.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Apr 13, In Lebanon gunmen
ambushed government troops in the east of the country, spraying their
military vehicle with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. Four
soldiers were killed and an officer was wounded in the attack.
(AP, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 17, Mohammed Zuhair
Siddiq, purported Syrian intelligence officer and one of the suspects
in the 2005 assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, was
arrested in Dubai. He was arrested in France in October 2005 as a
suspect in the murder, but disappeared from house arrest in France in
March, 2008.
(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 25, Lebanese authorities
arrested three men for allegedly being part of a spying ring for
Israel, in the latest episode in the long-running espionage war between
the two countries. The arrests were based on information extracted from
a retired Lebanese general arrested earlier this week, also for
allegedly spying for Israel.
(AP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 25, Lebanon’s national
debt was reported to have dropped to 162% of GDP, triple the world
average.
(Econ, 4/25/09, p.52)
2009 Apr 29, Lebanon released four
generals held for nearly four years in the 2005 truck-bomb
assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri after a UN-backed tribunal in
the Netherlands ordered them freed, setting off celebrations with
fireworks and dancing.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 May 8, In southern Lebanon
authorities arrested five people for allegedly spying for Israel as
part of the two countries' long-running espionage battle.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 18, Two Lebanese men
suspected of spying for Israel fled across the heavily fortified border
to the Jewish state, the second such escape since Lebanon stepped up a
campaign of arrests against those thought to be working for its
archenemy.
(AP, 5/18/09)
2009 May 30, Lebanon charged four
people with collaborating with Israel, raising to 23 the number of
suspected spies who have been charged in the last few months.
(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 Jun 7, Lebanese streamed to
their hometowns to vote in a crucial election. Muslims made up at least
60 percent of the estimated 4 million population. The rest are
Christians. There are 18 religious sects. Christians, Sunni Muslims and
Shiite Muslims make up roughly a third of the population each. About
400,000 Palestinian refugees also live in Lebanon. Lebanon's
Western-backed coalition defeated Hezbollah and its allies dealing a
stunning setback to the Iranian-backed militants. The tally showed the
winning coalition with 68 seats versus 57 for the Hezbollah-led
alliance. Three seats went to independents. Turnout nationwide was
about 52.3% up from 45.8% in 2005.
(AP, 6/7/09)(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 9, In Argentina judge
Rodolfo Canicoba Corral asked Interpol to detain Samuel Salman (43),
who is believed to be living in Lebanon, for involvement in the July
18, 1994, bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires that
killed 85 people.
(AP, 6/9/09)
2009 Jun 27, Lebanon's president
appointed parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri to become prime
minister after his pro-Western coalition defeated a Hezbollah-led
alliance in this month's election.
(AP, 6/27/09)
2009 Jun 28, In Lebanon a Sunni
woman (30) was killed and three men were wounded in a gunbattle between
Sunni supporters of Lebanon's prime minister-designate and
parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri, and rival followers of the
Hezbollah-allied Shiite Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
(AP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jul 13, Former Lebanese PM
Amin al-Hafez (83) died. He served a turbulent two-month term in 1973
before he was forced to resign.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 15, Mazen Abdul-Jawad
(32), a Saudi man, appeared on the Lebanese-based LBC satellite TV
station’s "Bold Red Line" program and shocked Saudis by publicly
confessing to sexual exploits. More than 200 people soon filed legal
complaints against Abdul-Jawad, dubbed a "sex braggart" by the media,
and many Saudis said he should be severely punished. On July 31
Abdul-Jawad was detained for questioning. The Jiddah offices of the LBC
station were closed soon thereafter.
(AP, 8/6/09)(AP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 18, In Lebanon 8 members
of an al-Qaida-inspired group sawed bars off their cell windows in a
high-security prison, scaled down the building using blankets tied
together, then stood on each other's shoulders to help one jump over a
wall and escape. Prison guards managed to stop the other seven from
fleeing. Officials described the escaped prisoner, Taha al-Hajj
Suleiman, as a Syrian militant and a "dangerous" member of the Fatah
Islam group. Suleiman was caught the next day in the woods just north
of the Roumieh prison.
(AP, 8/18/09)(AP, 8/19/09)
2009 Sep 10, Lebanese Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri said he is abandoning efforts to form a
new government after the Hezbollah-led parliament minority rejected his
list for a national unity Cabinet. This forced President Michel
Suleiman to start consultations with lawmakers from scratch over naming
a new premier.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 11, A senior Lebanese
military official said two rockets were fired toward Israel from the
town of Qlaileh inside Lebanon. Israel responded with a barrage of 14
rockets. No injuries or damage were reported.
(AP, 9/11/09)(SFC, 9/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 12, In Lebanon Salah
Ezzedine (47), a Shiite businessman with connections to Hezbollah, and
his partner Youssef Faour were arrested on suspicion of cheating
investors of hundreds of millions of dollars. They charged with
fraudulent embezzlement.
(www.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/world/middleeast/16lebanon.html?_r=3&ref=world)
2009 Oct 1, A Lebanese
businessman, Hassan Alayan, alleged that he and several hundred other
Lebanese were expelled from the United Arab Emirates country because
they refused to spy on the Shiite militant group Hezbollah and other
fellow citizens.
(AP, 10/1/09)
2009 Oct 27, Lebanon-based
militants launched a rocket into northern Israel hitting near the
Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona. The attack drew a rapid response from
Israeli artillery, which shelled the launch area. No casualties were
reported on either side.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Oct 28, Lebanese troops found
and dismantled four rockets near the border with Israel, a day after a
brief flare-up across the tense boundary.
(AP, 10/28/09)
2009 Nov 4, Israeli commandos
seized a ship that defense officials said was carrying more than 60
tons of missiles, rockets and anti-tank weapons bound for Lebanon's
Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas. The vessel Francop was operated by
United Feeder Services, a Cyprus-based shipping company that said it
picked up the cargo in Damietta, Egypt.
(AP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 7, Lebanon's
Syrian-backed factions finally agreed on a unity government proposed by
their pro-Western rivals, ending a four-month deadlock in the deeply
divided country.
(AP, 11/7/09)
2009 Nov 9, Lebanon’s PM Saad
Hariri formed Cabinet that included the militant group Hezbollah and
its allies, ending a months long deadlock.
(SFC, 11/10/09, p.A2)
2009 Nov 10, Israel's army chief
said Hezbollah guerrillas now possess tens of thousands of rockets,
some capable of reaching the country's major cities.
(AP, 11/10/09)
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End of file.