2008 conflict in Lebanon - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The 2008 conflict in Lebanon began on May 7, after Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

's 17-month long political crisis

2006–2008 Lebanese political protests

The 2006–2008 Lebanese political protests were a series of protests and sit-ins that began on 1 December 2006, led by groups in Lebanon that opposed the US and Saudi-backed government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and ended on 21 May 2008 following the Doha Agreement...

spiraled out of control. The fighting was sparked by a government move to shut down Hezbollah's telecommunication network and remove Beirut Airport's security chief Wafic Shkeir over alleged ties to Hezbollah. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah

Hasan Nasrallah, became the third Secretary General of the Lebanese political and paramilitary organization Hezbollah after Israel assassinated the previous leader, Abbas al-Musawi, in 1992. Hezbollah in its entirety is considered a terrorist organization by The United States, the Netherlands,...

said the government's decision to declare the group's military telecommunications network illegal was a "declaration of war" on the organization, and demanded that the government revoke it.

Hezbollah-led opposition fighters seized control of several West Beirut neighborhoods from Future Movement militiamen loyal to the government, in street battles that left 11 dead and 30 wounded. The opposition-seized areas were then handed over to the Lebanese Army. The army also pledged to resolve the dispute and has reversed the decisions of the government by letting Hezbollah preserve its telecoms network and re-instating the airport's security chief.

Rival Lebanese leaders reached a deal on May 21, 2008, to end the 18-month political feud that exploded into fighting and nearly drove the country to a new civil war.

Background

On December 1, 2006, a series of protests and sit-in

Sit-in

A sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...

s began in Lebanon

Lebanon

, led by groups that opposed the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora

Fouad Siniora

Fuad Siniora is a Lebanese politician, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, a position he held from 19 July 2005 to May 25, 2008 the date of the election of the new President of Lebanon; he was renominated to the post on 28 May 2008 and held the post as Acting President between those...

. The opposition group was made up of pro-Syrian Hezbollah and Amal

Amal Movement

Amal Movement is short for the Lebanese Resistance Detachments the acronym for which, in Arabic, is "amal", meaning "hope."Amal was founded in 1975 as the militia wing of the Movement of the Disinherited, a Shi'a political movement founded by Musa...

. A number of smaller parties were also involved, including the Marada Movement, the Lebanese Communist Party

Lebanese Communist Party

The Lebanese Communist Party – LCP or Parti communiste libanais in French, is a communist political party in Lebanon...

and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party

Syrian Social Nationalist Party

The Syrian Social Nationalist Party , is a secular nationalist political party in Lebanon and Syria. It advocates the establishment of a Syrian nation state spanning the Fertile Crescent, including present day Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Israel, Cyprus, Kuwait,...

. Members of the government are part of the March 14 Alliance

March 14 Alliance

The March 14 alliance , named after the date of the Cedar Revolution, is a coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon that call for sovereignty over all Lebanese territories, led by MP Saad Hariri, younger son of Rafik Hariri, the assassinated former prime minister of Lebanon, as...

, a coalition of anti-Syrian political parties and former militias that include the Progressive Socialist Party

Progressive Socialist Party

The Progressive Socialist Party or PSP , also known as Parti Socialiste Progressiste in French, is a political party in Lebanon. Its current leader is Walid Jumblatt...

, the Lebanese Forces

Lebanese Forces

The Lebanese Forces is a Lebanese political party. Founded as a militia by Bachir Gemayel during the Lebanese Civil War, the movement fought as the main militia within the Christian-dominated Lebanese Front...

and the Future Movement. The two groups are also divided along religious lines, the majority of Sunnis supporting the government and the Shi'a supporting the opposition group. Druze

Druze

The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...

aligned with Walid Jumblatt

Walid Jumblatt

Walid Jumblatt is a Lebanese politician and the current leader of the Progressive Socialist Party . He is the most prominent leader of Lebanon's Druze community.-Family:...

support the government, while those allied to Talal Arslan

Talal Arslan

-Political career:Arslan was elected to the Lebanese Parliament as a deputy of the Aley District in 1991, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2009. From 1990 to 1992 he was the Lebanese Minister of Tourism, from 1996 to 1998 he was Minister of Emigrants and served as Minister of State twice from 2000 to 2003 and...

have backed the opposition. The Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

community is divided as well, with Michel Aoun

Michel Aoun

Michel Naim Aoun is a former Lebanese Army Commander and he is one of the allies of Hezbollah. From 22 September 1988 to 13 October 1990, he has served as Prime Minister of the legal one of two rival governments that contended for power. He declared "The Liberation War" against the Syrian...

claiming to have 70% of the Christian community's support, based on the results of 2005 parliamentary elections. The opposition demanded that the government resign after Shi'a ministers had left the government in protest against a decision concerning the Hariri tribunal, thus unbalancing the proportional representation of religious groups as stipulated by the Lebanese Constitution. The standoff between the March 14 government and the March 8 opposition resulted in a year-long deadlock over the election of a new President to succeed Emile Lahoud

Émile Lahoud

General Émile Jamil Lahoud is a former President of Lebanon. Lahoud is a Maronite-Catholic, as is required for the Lebanese presidency. Under Lebanon's unwritten constitutional agreement, the National Pact, the presidency is earmarked for Maronite_Catholic, the parliament speaker's post for a Shia...

whose term had expired.

Seymour Hersh

Seymour Hersh

Seymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...

believed that the U.S was working to weaken and disarm Hezbollah with the help of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

, who was attempting to strengthen Sunni groups as a counterweight to the Shi'a Hezbollah. Borzou Daragahi

Borzou Daragahi

Borzou Daragahi is a print and radio journalist and the former Baghdad bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times. A U.S. citizen of Iranian descent, he was a 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his coverage of Iraq and led the bureau that was named a 2007 Pulitzer finalist for its Iraq coverage...

, the L.A. Times bureau chief in Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, wrote that the Saudis had disowned the attempt by Sunnis in Lebanon to found a militia in the guise of a security force named Secure Plus. As'ad AbuKhalil

As'ad AbuKhalil

As'ad AbuKhalil Arabic: أسعد أبو خليل is a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus....

, a secular leftist and a professor of political science at the California State University, Stansilaus, stated that he believed the US was attempting to fund and arm Sunni militias to instigate a Sunni-Shiite conflict.Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar is a journalist based in São Paulo, Brazil. He writes a column entitled The Roving Eye for Asia Times Online and is analyst and correspondent for The Real News Network...

wrote in the Asia Times

Asia Times

Asia Times was a newspaper launched in Thailand by Thai tycoon Sondhi Limthongkul in 1995. The newspaper hired talent from around the world to produce a regional English-language newspaper....

that the US gave $60 million to the Lebanese Internal Security Forces

Internal Security Forces

The Internal Security Forces – ISF or Forces de Sécurité Intérieure in French, are the national police and security force of Lebanon. Modern police were established in Lebanon in 1861, with creation of the Gendarmerie...

at the Interior Ministry, and accused the US of fomenting sectarianism in Lebanon.

May 2008 controversies and protests

In May 2008 the tensions between the government and the opposition escalated when the government announced a series of security decisions. Heads of the government accused Hezbollah of preparing for a terrorist attack, which was dismissed by Hezbollah as scaremongering.

On May 3, leaders of the government accused Hezbollah of setting up a hidden, remote-controlled camera in a container park overlooking the main runway of Beirut's international airport. The accusation is that the Shia movement, which controls the suburbs where the airport is located, was spying on air traffic in preparation for a possible attack, perhaps aimed at assassinating one of the prominent pro-government figures who fly in and out of the facility. Hezbollah dismissed the accusations as scaremongering, saying that those who leveled them were simply parroting a US campaign against it and other groups which are resisting Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

On May 6, 2008 the government attempted to disable Hezbollah's communications network. Hezbollah operates an extensive fixed-line telecommunications network, in parallel to the government owned one, covering its strongholds of south and east Lebanon, and the southern suburbs of Beirut. Hezbollah claimed that the telecommunication network was a key element in the 2006 Lebanon War, which according to Hezbollah was a victory that shocked the Israeli military. The government regarded the network as a breach on its sovereignty. In addition, the network was regarded by the government as an infringement on public funds since it competes with its own at the same time using its own infrastructure.
Hezbollah declared that it regards the network as an integral part of its defensive measures against Israel. The government also ordered the commander of security at Beirut international airport

Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport

Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport is located 9 km from the city centre in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon and is the only operational commercial airport in the country. It is the hub for Lebanon's national carrier, Middle East Airlines...

, Brig Gen Wafiq Shuqeir, to return to the Army Command who had been suspected of acting on instructions from Hezbollah rather than his employer. Brig Gen Shuqeir hushed up the discovery of a secret surveillance camera allegedly set up by Hezbollah in a container overlooking the main runway, to monitor the movement of aircraft and VIPs.

On May 7, 2008 a labor strike which was planned before the month of May turned into violence when pro-government and opposition gunmen started their shootings, leading to clashes among the two groups in Beirut. The next day, Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah

stated on television that the telecommunications network was essential in the militant group's resistance against Israel. Nasrallah further said that the government was declaring war by threatening to shut down the group’s private communications network and persecuting those controlling it.

Protests

On May 7, 2008, a work strike called for by the country's union federation to demand higher wages and decry high prices was used as a pretext by the opposition to launch its attack. The opposition threw their weight behind the strike which paralyzed large parts of Lebanon's capital Beirut

Beirut

. The clashes were first reported when government and opposition supporters in a pro-Government sector of Beirut exchanged insults and began throwing stones at each other after the Hezbollah men insisted on blocking the roads. Witnesses said security forces intervened and gunshots were heard, apparently troops firing in the air to disperse the crowds.

Around the city, pro-Hezbollah protesters carrying machine guns and weapons, blocked roads with burning tires. The road toward Beirut international airport

Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport

was blocked and cut off from the rest of the city, and the Beirut Port was occupied as a main reminder of 1975-90 civil war. By the end of this day, the Hezbollah militia had completely conquered the streets of West-Beirut, enforced an armed blockade on houses of Majority leaders Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblatt, and declared that it will continue with its actions until the Government backs down.

May 8 - May 9: Takeover of Beirut

On May 8, 2008, minutes after Nasrallah's comments referring to pro-government actions as "a declaration of open war", heavy street battles began. Fighting began along Corniche Mazraa, an avenue separating Shiite and Sunni areas, spreading to the western, southern and eastern parts of Beirut

Beirut

where Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods overlapped. Combat was heard near the office of Lebanon's Sunni religious leader - an ally of the government - and near the official residence of the opposition-aligned parliament speaker. Machine gun

Machine gun

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....

s and rocket propelled grenade

Rocket propelled grenade

A rocket-propelled grenade is a shoulder-fired, anti-tank weapon system which fires rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor and stabilized in flight with fins. Some types of RPG are reloadable while others are single-use. RPGs, with the exception of...

s were used by both sides. Opposition militants overran and burnt-down three pro-government offices. More barricades were set up, closing major highways. A CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

correspondent, pinned down with a Lebanese army unit during an intense gun battle, reported that government forces had not reacted to the violence. The army decided not to intervene in the clashes for fear of a breakup of the army along sectarian lines, which happened during the civil war.

Fighting from the previous day lasted throughout the night and only stopped for a short time a little bit after dawn on May 9, 2008. However, the fighting quickly resumed after the brief lull.

Late in the afternoon, the few Government supporters who had shown some resistance in Beirut had surrendered their arms to the Hezbollah-led opposition. The opposition moved in and took over their abandoned positions in west Beirut, virtually taking over more than half of the capital. About 100 opposition militants in camouflage uniforms marched down Hamra Street

Hamra Street

Hamra Street , or Rue Hamra, is one of the main streets of the city of Beirut, Lebanon, and one of the main economic and diplomatic hubs of Beirut. Due to the numerous sidewalk cafes and theatres, Hamra Street was the center of intellectual activity in Beirut during the 1960s and 1970s...

. All the media outlets related to the pro-Government Future Movement (Future Television

Future Television

Future Television a television station broadcasting from Lebanon. It was founded in 1993 by Rafik Hariri, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon. Future TV is also available via satellite in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Politically, the channel supports the views of the Future...

, Future News

Future News

Future News is a 24-hour news channel. It is a sister channel to Future Television.Future News is one of the leading channels in Lebanon that covers local and international news around the clock....

, Al Mustaqbal Newspaper, and Radio Orient) were occupied by opposition fighters and forced to close.
The armed occupation of Beirut by pro-Hezbollah militia-men continued until the end of the crisis with almost no reaction from the Army nor Government loyalists.

Later that evening sporadic clashes erupted in Sidon

Sidon

Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...

, where two civilians were killed; and in Bar Elias in the Bekaa Valley where a woman was killed. Also, eight people were killed near the town of Aley

Aley

Aley is a picturesque town in Mount Lebanon. It is located 17 km uphill from Beirut, just south of the summer resort of Bhamdoun and north of the strategic town of Souk El Gharb.-Demographics:...

in clashes between government supporters and opponents. Seven people who were Hezbollah supporters were killed.

May 10 - May 12: Fighting spreads to Aley and the North

On May 10, 2008, a funeral procession was attacked by a shop-owner affiliated with the Amal Movement

Amal Movement

, whose shop was previously burned down by Sunni militants, leaving six people dead. An Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

photographer who witnessed the shooting said the attack came as a procession of 200 people headed toward a nearby cemetery to bury a 24-year-old pro-government supporter killed in previous fighting. At least 14 people were killed in the town of Halba

Halba

Halba is the capital of Akkar District in North Governorate, Lebanon, close to the border with Syria. It is located at around .The population in Halba is majority Muslim Sunnah, and minority Christian Greek Orthodox and Christian Maronites....

, in the Akkar region of north Lebanon, as about 100 pro-Future Movement gunmen attacked an office of the SSNP. 10 of the dead were SSNP members, three were government loyalists and one was an Australian citizen of Lebanese descent on vacation in Lebanon, who was trying to get information at the SSNP offices about evacuating from the city. The Australian father of four, Fadi Sheikh, reportedly had his hands and feet cut off.

One other person was killed in fighting in Sidon

Sidon

and two soldiers died in fighting east of Beirut. At least 40 people have been killed, four days after Beirut street battles have ignited.

On the other hand, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the decision on the communications issue would be dealt with by the army. The Lebanese army said it had frozen measures taken by the government against the Hezbollah movement, and called for all armed militants to withdraw from the streets. Then Hezbollah's TV station, Al-Manar

Al-Manar

Al-Manar is a Lebanese satellite television station affiliated with Hezbollah, registered as Lebanese Media Group Company, broadcasting from Beirut, Lebanon. It has an offering a "rich menu" of high production news, commentary, and entertainment. The self-proclaimed "Station of the Resistance" ,...

, announced that Hezbollah-led opposition forces would withdraw all their gunmen from Beirut in compliance with the Lebanese army's request, but a civil disobedience campaign will continue until the group's demands are met.

During the night between May 10 and May 11, heavy fighting broke out between Alawite Hezbollah sympathizers and Sunni supporters of the government in Tripoli

Tripoli, Lebanon

Tripoli is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in Lebanon. Situated 85 km north of the capital Beirut, Tripoli is the capital of the North Governorate and the Tripoli District. Geographically located on the east of the Mediterranean, the city's history dates back...

. One woman was killed.

On May 11, Beirut was quiet, after control of areas seized by the opposition was handed to the Lebanese army. Many roads in the capital remained blocked, including the airport road, as the opposition continued a campaign of civil disobedience. In Tripoli, Sunni supporters of the government had reportedly been fighting opposition followers in the Alawite

Alawite

The Alawis, also known as Alawites, Nusayris and Ansaris are a prominent mystical and syncretic religious group centred in Syria who are a branch of Shia Islam.-Etymology:...

dominated Jabal Mohsen area with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Battle of Mount Barook and Aley District

On May 9, heavy fighting broke out in Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the...

between pro-government Progressive Socialist Party

Progressive Socialist Party

The Progressive Socialist Party or PSP , also known as Parti Socialiste Progressiste in French, is a political party in Lebanon. Its current leader is Walid Jumblatt...

members and opposition forces - mainly Lebanese Democratic Party

Lebanese Democratic Party

The Lebanese Democratic Party is a political party in Lebanon established by Prince Talal Arslan in 2001...

, SSNP and Tawhid Party. The clashes started in Aytat, near Kayfoun and soon expanded to cover many spots in Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon

including Baysur, Shuweifat and Aley. Most of the fighting was concentrated on Hill 888.

It started when four Druze members of the Aley

Aley

Aley is a picturesque town in Mount Lebanon. It is located 17 km uphill from Beirut, just south of the summer resort of Bhamdoun and north of the strategic town of Souk El Gharb.-Demographics:...

municipal police were kidnapped by Hezbollah. Soon after the news of the kidnapping spread, the Mayor of Aley assembled a group of PSP fighters and went up to Hill 888. As they reached the hill they were attacked by Hezbollah gunmen who wounded few of the PSP and municipality members. PSP members retaliated killing 3 of the kidnappers. The incident developed into an armed clash.

Artillery and mortars were used for the first time during these battles. A ceasefire agreement was supposed to take place at 18:00 of the same day, but fighters from both sides continued to exchange fire. Negotiations were ongoing for the PSP members to give up the fight and surrender their positions to the Lebanese Army.

The battles at Aley stopped for several hours, but the two sides clashed again in Mount Barook to the southeast shortly before midnight. Barook separates the Druze heartland of Shouf from the mainly Shi'ite southern end of the Bekaa Valley. That night Hezbollah's fighters deployed from southern Beirut to the Qmatiyeh area tried to attack the hills near Aley but they were beaten back. After that Hezbollah tried to go on the offensive again and attacked their rival's positions. The Druze Militia had fought the Hezbollah militants from dug-in positions left over from the 1975-90 civil war. The Druze used hunting guns, AK 47 and other machine guns and RPGs to blast at the advancing Hezbollah. The offensive was backed up by Katyusha rockets fired from southern Beirut. Opposition forces bombarded the pro-government Druze area with artillery while ground forces attacked Druze positions using rockets and machine guns.

By morning the pro-government Druze fighters agreed to stop the battle and several villages loyal to Lebanon's pro-government Druze leader Walid Jumblatt had been handed to the army. PSP stayed in the region.
The kidnapped municipality police members were released by Hezbollah on May 12.

Clashes in Hamra and Tripoli

After a day of relative quiet in Beirut renewed gunfire was heard in the commercial area of Hamra in the western part of the city shortly after midnight on May 12. The fighting occurred near the home of Future Movement leader Saad al-Hariri. A two-man Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

camera crew suffered injuries while trying to film the fighting and were evacuated by the Lebanese army.

Meanwhile in Tripoli clashes left one person dead and at least six others wounded.
The Army stated that if the clashes did not end by morning of the next day they will intervene and use force if necessary to end the fighting.

May 13-May 14: The Army intervenes and tensions are defused

Starting at 06:00 a.m. May 13, local time, the Lebanese Army started to deploy to prevent any further fighting. After moving its headquarters, Future TV was back on the air by 4:30 p.m.

Lebanese Tourism Minister Joe Sarkis announced that the port of the bay of Jounieh

Jounieh

Jounieh is a Mediterranean coastal city about 16 kilometers north of Beirut, Lebanon. Jounieh is known for its seaside resorts, pubs, restaurants and nightclubs, as well as its old stone souk, ferry, and cablecar , which takes passengers up the mountain to the shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon in...

will start accommodating ships and ferries for Lebanese arriving from and leaving to Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

.

There was less fighting then during the previous days and the rival militias took the chance to bury their dead.

On May 14, Lebanon's pro-government and opposition factions, had reached a deal to revoke the two decisions that sparked the fighting. On the same day, the opposition ended its civil disobedience campaign. Also, this day was when the airport had opened for one day to allow a plane to arrive for a meeting and then departure again.

Doha Agreement

The Doha Agreement, made on 21 May 2008, was considered a victory for the Lebanese opposition as they secured their demand for veto-wielding power in the new government and a new electoral law which could benefit the opposition in the 2009 parliamentary elections. The agreement was considered by various Middle East analysts of being another blow to the Bush administration's policies in Lebanon.

June–July 2008: Clashes continue

On June 17, three people were killed in clashes between pro- and anti-government residents in two villages in the Bekaa Valley, in eastern Lebanon, according to a Lebanese military official.

On June 22 and June 23, at least nine people, eight civilians and a policeman, were killed and 55 others were wounded in Tripoli, in clashes between pro-government Sunnis based in the Bab el-Tabaneh district and pro-Syrian Alawites from Jabal Mohsen. Machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades were used in the clashes, which started around four in the morning.

Also on June 22, a senior officer of the Islamist group Jund al-Sham

Jund al-Sham

Jund al-Sham is a terrorist group believed to have first appeared in Afghanistan in 1999, the group was established by Syrians, Palestinians and Lebanese with links to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who went on to found al-Qaida in Iraq and was subsequently killed by a US airstrike...

, Imad Yassin, was wounded by a bomb, along with another Islamist, in the Palestinian refugee camp Ain al-Hilweh

Ain al-Hilweh

Ain al-Hilweh is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon with over 70,000 refugees, located on the outskirts of the port of Sidon. Because Lebanese Armed Forces are not allowed to enter the camp Ain al-Hilweh has been called a "zone of unlaw" by the Lebanese media...

.

A pro-Syrian Druze

Druze

politician of the Lebanese Democratic Party

Lebanese Democratic Party

The Lebanese Democratic Party is a political party in Lebanon established by Prince Talal Arslan in 2001...

, Saleh Aridi, was killed in a car bomb on September 11, 2008.

Fighting in Tripoli

Between July 25 and September 29, 23 people were killed in clashes between Sunni and Alawite militants in Tripoli. On September 8, Alawite and Sunni leaders signed a reconciliation agreement, which ended the fighting and tension which has haunted Tripoli since the civil war. Sunni Future Movement leader Saad Hariri

Saad Hariri

Saad-eddine Rafiq Al-Hariri is a Saudi-Lebanese billionaire who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 2009 until 2011. He is the second son of Rafiq Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister who was assassinated in 2005...

subsequently visited Tripoli stating "We are both Lebanese and we will not allow anyone to tamper with us. I will do everything I can in order not to let anyone damage the Alawites' security in Tripoli and to foil any external plot to tamper with the security of the Alawites or the security of Tripoli".

On August 13 and September 29, car bombs targeting civilian busses in Tripoli killing five soldiers in the first incident, and 16 people including 7 soldiers, in the second.

Reactions

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini has called on national unity among the Lebanese adding that the situation can be "managed through talks and consensus-building." Hosseini blamed the U.S. and Israel for the ongoing hostilities in Lebanon.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal accused Iran of "backing what happened in Lebanon, a coup" and called for "all regional parties to respect the independence and sovereignty of Lebanon and to stop meddling in its affairs and inciting sectarian tensions". He had further accused Hezbollah of taking "violent, offensive measures, which aim at an annihilation of people."

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora urged the Lebanese army to restore order, assuring that the country won't fall to Hezbollah after four days of clashes.

On May 11 Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

have urged an immediate halt to the fighting in Lebanon and agreed to send a ministerial delegation to Beirut to try to mediate an end to the crisis.

Casualties

During the heavy battles in Beirut and east and north of the city 84 people were killed and 200 were wounded while one Hezbollah supporter was missing. Among the dead were confirmed to be 27 pro-government and 39 opposition fighters, two soldiers and 16 civilians, 15 Lebanese and one Australian.

Another 12 people were killed in June, including one policeman. A further nine died in July, also including one policeman.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Background

May 2008 controversies and protests

Protests

May 8 - May 9: Takeover of Beirut

May 10 - May 12: Fighting spreads to Aley and the North

Battle of Mount Barook and Aley District

Clashes in Hamra and Tripoli

May 13-May 14: The Army intervenes and tensions are defused

Doha Agreement

June–July 2008: Clashes continue

Fighting in Tripoli

Reactions

Casualties

See also

External links