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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.
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.
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.
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).
900BC-700BC In 2008 archeologists found pottery in Tyre, Lebanon, that was used by Phoenicians during this period.
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)
410 St. Maroun, founder of the Maronite Christians, died in Cyrrhus region of Syria. The Maronite movement reached Lebanon when St Maroun's first disciple Abraham of Cyrrhus, who was called the Apostle of Lebanon, realized that paganism was thriving in Lebanon, so he set out to convert the pagans to Christians by introducing them to the way of St Maroun.
632-661 The Rashidun Caliphate, also known as the Rightly Guided Caliphate, comprising the first four caliphs in Islam's history, was founded after Muhammad's death. At its height, the Caliphate extended from the Arabian Peninsula, to the Levant, Caucasus and North Africa in the west, to the Iranian highlands and Central Asia in the east. It was the one of the largest empires in history up until that time.
1110 May 13, Crusaders marched into Beirut causing a bloodbath.
1124 Jul 7, Tyre [Tyrus] surrendered to the Crusaders.
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)
1860 May 22, In Lebanon a small group of Maronites fired on a group of Druzes at the entrance to Beirut, killing one and wounding two. This sparked off a torrent of violence which swept through Lebanon.
1860 Jul, Fighting in Lebanon spilled over into Damascus. With the connivance of the military authorities and Turkish soldiers, Muslim fanatics organized pogroms which lasted three days (July 9-11). 25,000 Christians were killed including the American and Dutch consuls. Churches and missionary schools were set on fire. Many Christians were saved through the intervention of the Muslim Algerian exile Abd al-Qadir and his soldiers.
1866 The American University of Beirut (AUB) was founded and centered its teaching on the American liberal arts tradition.
(Reuters, 3/24/17)
1880 Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine were part of Syria under Ottoman rule.
(Econ, 5/27/06, p.80)
1887 A Lebanese villager discovered a well near Sidon that led to two underground chambers, which turned out to be a royal tomb containing 18 marble sarcophagi dating back the 5th century BC. The largest was believed to contain the remains of Alexander the Great. Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II ordered them shipped to Istanbul.
(Econ, 5/19/12, p.89)
1912 Feb 24, Italy bombed Beirut in the first act of war against the Ottoman Empire.
1916 May 9, The Sykes-Picot Agreement, a secret understanding between the governments of Britain and France, defined their respective spheres of post-World War I influence and control in the Middle East. It was signed on 16 May 1916. Italian claims were added in 1917. 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. As of 2016 the boundaries of the agreement remained in much of the common border between Syria and Iraq.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sykes%E2%80%93Picot_Agreement)(WSJ, 2/27/00, p.A17)(Econ, 5/14/16, SR p.5)
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. Christians made up 50% of the population. As of 2008 this was Lebanon�s last census. By 2016 Maronite Catholics numbered 21% of voters.
(Econ, 12/22/07, p.99)(Econ, 11/5/16, p.39)
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.
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.
1943 Sep 21, Bishara al-Khuri (1890-1964) 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. The French held elections to fulfill their earlier promises of Lebanese independence. The new government promptly passed legislation to remove French influences in the constitution.
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.
1943 Nov 22, The French mandate over Lebanon ended after 23 years of colonial rule. This became marked a Lebanon�s Independence Day.
1943 Lebanon adopted power-sharing agreement after the country won its independence from France. Aimed at maintaining a balance between the 18 religious communities, the agreement called for the president to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister to be Sunni Muslim and parliament speaker a Shiite.
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.
1946 British and French troops withdrew by the end of 1946 by which time Lebanon had become a member of the United Nations.
1948 May 15, Hours after declaring its independence, the new state of Israel was attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
1948 Bishara al-Khuri managed to get the national legislature to amend the constitution, to allow him to run for a second term.
1949 Mar 23, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
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.
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
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).
1969 Apr 23, The Lebanese army battled with rioting Palestinians.
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 Fatah, the armed faction of 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)(Econ, 1/24/15, p.42)
1972 May 30, Three militants of the Japanese Red Army 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 Imam Moussa al-Sadr founded Amal, the first major militia and political force for Lebanon's Shiites. They had historically been under the thumb of Christians and Sunnis.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Mar 16, In Lebanon Kamal Jumblatt (60) was killed. He was the leader of Lebanon�s Druze community, a member of the Lebanese Parliament and a Socialist-nationalist supporter of Palestinians. Jumblatt was assassinated by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, which he had legalized as interior minister some years earlier.
(Econ, 11/28/09, p.49)(http://tinyurl.com/yzgycku)
1977 Sep 26, Israel announced a cease-fire on Lebanese border.
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.
1978 Mar 19, Israeli army took control of almost all of Lebanon south of Litani River.
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.
1978 Jun 13, Israelis withdrew the last of their invading forces from Lebanon.
1978 Aug 13, In a Palestinian area of Beirut, Lebanon, a bomb killed 100 people.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1978 Aug 31, Imam Moussa al-Sadr, the spiritual leader of Lebanon's Shiite Muslim community, disappeared along with 2 companions during a visit to Libya. In 2008 a Lebanese prosecutor charged Moammar Khadafy and 6 other Libyan officials in the disappearance.
(AP, 9/3/03)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_al-Sadr)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A7)
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.
1978 Ghassan Tueni (1926-2012, Lebanon�s UN ambassador (1977-1982), pushed for the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 425, which called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon.
1978 Fiji sent its first UN peacekeepers to Lebanon.
(Econ, 1/23/16, p.35)
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. Erica Chambers, a British passport holder, recruited by Mossad, triggered the huge car bomb.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Hassan_Salameh)(HN,1/22/99)(Econ, 6/7/14, p.88)
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.
1980 Apr 18, In Lebanon three UN peacekeepers were kidnapped. Derek Smallhorne and Thomas Barrett of Ireland were subsequently murdered and John O�Mahony seriously wounded. In 2014 a Mahmoud Bazzi (71), a suspect in the killings, agreed to return to Lebanon from Detroit, where he was living without proper documentation.
(SFC, 8/12/14, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Tiri_Incident)
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.
1982 Jun 4, Israel attacked targets in south Lebanon one day after the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador in London.
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.
1982 Jul 6, President Ronald Reagan agreed to contribute U.S. troops to the peacekeeping unit in Beirut.
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.
1982 Aug 21, A group of Palestinian guerrillas left Lebanon by ship under an evacuation plan mediated by the United States.
1982 Aug 23, Bashir Gemayel was elected as Lebanon's President. His inauguration was scheduled for 23 September.
1982 Aug 24, Some 800 US Marines landed in Beirut, Lebanon, as part of a joint US-French peacekeeping force.
1982 Aug 30, Palestinian Liberation Organization left Beirut, Lebanon, and moved to Tunis, Tunisia. [see Aug 21] American and European forces left Lebanon following the departure of the PLO, but returned following the September death Bashir Gemayel.
(SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)(Econ, 5/14/16, SR p.13)
1982 Sep 1, The evacuation of the PLO from Lebanon ended.
1982 Sep 14, Lebanon's president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, was killed by a bomb.
1982 Sep 15, The Israeli army reoccupied Beirut.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre)(SFC, 5/24/00, p.A15)
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.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amin_Gemayel)(WSJ, 9/12/96, p.A16)(AP, 9/21/02)
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.
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.
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. CIA agent Robert Ames was among those killed. In 2014 Kai Bird authored �The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames."
(WSJ, 3/26/96, p.A-1)(WSJ, 9/19/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 8/3/06, p.A4)(AP, 4/18/08)(Econ, 6/7/14, p.87)
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.
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. In 2007 under a law allowing foreign governments to be sued in US courts, US federal judge Royce Lamberth ordered Iran to pay $2.65 billion to victims' families.
(WSJ, 8/1/96/p.B1)(AP, 10/23/97)(WSJ, 9/19/01 , p.A14)(AFP, 7/6/12)
1983 Nov 24, PLO exchanged 6 Israeli prisoners for 4,500 Palestinians and Lebanese.
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.
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.
1984 Mar 12, Lebanese President Gemayel opened the second meeting in five years calling for the end to nine-years of war.
1984 Mar 16, William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped by gunmen; he died in captivity.
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.
1985 Mar 8, In Lebanon a massive car bomb killed 80 people. It targeted Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, but he escaped injury. Reporter Bob Woodward later wrote that CIA director William Casey, while lying on his deathbed, admitted personal culpability in the attack, which he suggests was carried out with funding from Saudi Arabia.
(Econ, 7/10/10, p.48)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Beirut_car_bombing)
1985 Mar 16, Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was abducted in Beirut; he was released in December 1991.
1985 Mar 25, British journalist Alec Collett (64) was abducted in Beirut as he covered Lebanon�s civil war. His remains were found in 2009 in the eastern Bekaa Valley. The following year a group belonging to Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Nidal said it killed him in retaliation for US air raids on Libya.
(www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-3752719.html)(Reuters, 11/23/09)
1985 May 22, In Lebanon Michel Seurat, a French history researcher, was abducted. In 1986 the Islamic Jihad said he had been executed.
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.
1985 Jun 9, American educator Thomas Sutherland was kidnapped in Lebanon. He was released in November 1991 along with fellow hostage Terry Waite.
1985 Jun 10, The Israeli army pulled out of Lebanon after 1,099 days of occupation.
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.
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.
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.
1985 Dec 28, A Syrian sponsored peace agreement was signed in Damascus between warring Lebanese Moslem and Christian leaders.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1986 Jul 26, Kidnappers in Lebanon released the Reverend Lawrence Martin Jenco, an American hostage held for nearly 19 months.
1986 Sep. 9, Frank Reed, director of a private school in Lebanon, was taken hostage; he was released 44 months later.
1986 Sep 12, Joseph Cicippio, the acting comptroller at the American University in Beirut, was kidnapped; he was released in December 1991.
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.
1986 Nov 2, Kidnappers in Lebanon released American hospital administrator David Jacobsen after holding him for 17 months.
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.
1986 Nov 10, Camille Sontag and Marcel Coudari, two Frenchmen who had been held hostage in Lebanon, were released.
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.
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.
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.
1987 Jan 24, Gunmen in Lebanon kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. All were later released.
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.
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.
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.
1987 Sep. 5, Some four-dozen people were killed in an Israeli air raid on targets near the southern Lebanese port town of Sidon.
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.
1987 Nov 27, French hostages Jean-Louis Normandin and Roger Auque were freed by their pro-Iranian captors in west Beirut, Lebanon.
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.
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.
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.
1988 Oct 3, Lebanese kidnappers released Indian educator Mithileshwar Singh, who'd been held captive with three Americans for more than 20 months.
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."
1988 Oct 19, Eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a suicide car bomb attack in south Lebanon.
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.
1988 Dec 20, The International Committee of the Red Cross suspended its operations in Lebanon after receiving death threats.
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.
1989 Mar 19, Muslim gunners fire rockets into Christian areas of Lebanon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1990 Apr 22, Pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon freed American hostage Robert Polhill after nearly 39 months of captivity.
1990 Apr 30, Hostage Frank Reed was released by his captives in Lebanon, the second American freed in eight days.
1990 Aug 24, Irish hostage Brian Keenan was released by his captors in Lebanon after being held more than four years.
1990 Oct 13, In Lebanon, rebel Christian General Michel Aoun ended his mutiny against the government. Syrian forces defeated the army under Aoun. Jihad Georges Eid (20) a soldier in the Lebanese army, was taken from Lebanon by Syrian troops on the day of the last battle in the civil war. For the next 20 plus years, more than 600 families, Lebanese and Palestinian, Muslim and Christian, demanded authorities reveal the fate of thousands of political prisoners believed to have disappeared at the hands of Syrian troops.
(AP, 10/13/00)(SFC, 4/27/05, p.A8)(AFP, 10/13/11)
1990 Dec 24, In Lebanon Omar Karami (1934-2014) began serving his first term as prime minister and continued to May 15, 1992.
(AP, 1/1/15)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Karami)
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."
1991 Jul 20, Lebanon joined Syria in agreeing to participate in Mideast peace talks with Israel.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1991 Sep 11, In the Middle East hopes grew for the release of Western hostages in Lebanon after Israel freed 51 prisoners.
1991 Sep 24, Kidnappers in Lebanon freed British hostage Jack Mann after holding him captive for more than two years.
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."
1991 Oct 21, American hostage Jesse Turner was freed by his kidnappers in Lebanon after nearly five years in captivity.
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.
1991 Dec 1, Kidnappers in Lebanon pledged to release American hostage Joseph Cicippio within 48 hours.
1991 Dec 2, American hostage Joseph Cicippio, held captive in Lebanon for more than five years, was released.
1991 Dec 3, Radicals in Lebanon released American hostage Alann Steen, who had been held captive nearly five years.
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.
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.
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.
1992 Jun 16, Two German relief workers, the last of Western hostages held in Lebanon, were released.
1992 Jul 23, US Secretary of State James A. Baker III, touring the Middle East, made a secret visit to Lebanon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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)(http://tinyurl.com/64nx84f)
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 Mona Khalil (60) founded The Orange House Project to protect sea turtles on the south Lebanon beach in el Mansouri from predators, pollution and encroaching humans. Her activism was responsible for banning dynamite fishing in the area, which resulted in her house being shot at and attempts to burn her farm down.
(Reuters, 7/28/17)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 3� 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.
2002 Nov 23, Some of the world's richest countries agreed to offer about $4.3 billion in financial support for debt-ridden Lebanon.
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.
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."
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.
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.
2003 Aug 10, Israeli warplanes bombed suspected Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, hours after the militant group shelled northern Israel, killing a teenage boy.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
2004 Mar 23, Israeli helicopter gunships fired on gunmen in southern Lebanon, killing two and wounding one.
2004 May 5, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at a suspected guerrilla hideout in south Lebanon, shortly after Hezbollah gunners fired on Israeli jets.
2004 May 7, Israeli warplanes struck suspected guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon after artillery fire killed one Israeli soldier on the border.
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.
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.
(www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/05/hassoun.case/index.html)(AP, 7/10/04)(SFC, 7/9/04, p.A1)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2004 Sep 6, In Lebanon 4 Cabinet ministers resigned to protest the extension of President Emile Lahoud's term.
2004 Sep 10, Two Lebanese men were shot dead in Baghdad.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2005 Mar 2, President Bush demanded in blunt terms that Syria get out of Lebanon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2005 Apr 26, Syria ended its 29-year military domination of Lebanon as soldiers flashing victory signs completed a withdrawal.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2005 May 30, Officials in Lebanon announced that Saad Hariri, the son of assassinated former premier Rafik Hariri, had swept parliamentary elections in Beirut.
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.
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.
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. The winning pro-Western coalition became known as the March 14th alliance after the recent big anti-Syrian demonstrations.
(AP, 6/20/05)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.53)
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
2005 Jul 19, Fouad Siniora succeeded Najib Mikati as PM of Lebanon.
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.
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.
2005 Jul 26, In Lebanon Samir Geagea (53), a notorious anti-Syrian Christian warlord, was released after 11 years in prison.
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.
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.
2005 Aug 11, Lebanese police arrested Omar Bakri, the Islamic cleric who is being investigated in Britain for his remarks on the London bombings.
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.
2005 Aug 22, In Lebanon a bombing wounded five people in Beirut.
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.
2005 Sep 16, In Lebanon a powerful bomb exploded in a Christian neighborhood of eastern Beirut, killing at least one person and wounding 23.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2005 Nov 23, Hezbollah guerrillas clashed with Israeli soldiers on the southern Lebanese border.
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.
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.
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. He was assassinated at a time when several anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and journalists were targeted following the killing of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri. He was the son of former ambassador Ghassan Tueni.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2006 Feb 2, Lebanese officials said the bullet-ridden body of a 15-year-old shepherd was found in disputed territory occupied by Israel.
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.
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.
2006 Feb 14, The UN asked Lebanon to explain reports of arms shipments crossing the Syrian border destined for the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2006 May 15, The Palestine Liberation Organization reopened its Beirut office, closed since the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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-802 at the ship that killed 4 sailors. Deaths in 3 days of fighting rose to 61 people in Lebanon and 10 in Israel.
(AP, 7/14/06)(AP, 7/14/07)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.58)
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2006 Sep 2, Hezbollah announced the death of Hajj Ali Mohammed Saleh Bilal, a military commander, from wounds suffered in monthlong fighting with Israel.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2006 Nov 5, A bomb exploded near police barracks in Beirut, the latest in a series of attacks targeting police in the Lebanese capital.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2006 Nov 21, In Lebanon prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2007 Feb 2, Lebanon's top Sunni Muslim clerics published a religious edict prohibiting Muslims from killing their fellow countrymen, particularly other Muslims.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2007 Mar 20, Ali Mussa Dakdouk, a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative, was captured in southern Iraq.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2007 May 29, Lebanon�s army clashed with al-Qaida-linked Islamic fighters in a Palestinian refugee camp, breaking a weeklong truce.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2007 Jun 7, In eastern Lebanon troops discovered three vehicles rigged with explosives during a raid on a hideout.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2007 Jun 19, A Lebanese soldier was killed in clashes with al-Qaida-inspired militants in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
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.
2007 Jun 28, Lebanese troops killed at least six Islamic militants during a gunbattle in northern Lebanon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2007 Jul 25, Lebanese army troops unleashed barrages of artillery and tank shells at Islamic militants in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
2007 Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b.1960), Lebanese writer, authored �The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable." Here he wrote �Don�t ask the barber if you need a haircut � and don�t ask an academic if what he does is relevant." A review by the Sunday Times called it one of the twelve most influential books since World War II.
(Econ, 6/2/07, p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb)(Econ, 5/16/15, p.55)
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.
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.
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.
2008 Jan 15, An explosion targeted a US Embassy vehicle in northern Beirut, killing four Lebanese and injuring a local embassy employee.
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."
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.
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.
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.
2008 Feb 12, In Syria Imad Mughniyeh (45), the suspected mastermind of dramatic attacks on the US Embassy and US Marine barracks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, died in a car bombing. Hezbollah and its Iranian backers blamed Israel for the killing. Israel denied involvement and said it was looking into the death. Mughniyeh, a Lebanese Shia, was recruited by Ali Hassan Salameh (d.1979), the chief of operations officer of Black September. In 2015 the Washington Post reported that the CIA and Israel's spy agency Mossad were behind the plot.
(AP, 2/13/08)(Econ, 6/7/14, p.88)(AFP, 1/31/15)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2008 Jun 22, Fighting broke out in northern Lebanon between pro- and anti-government factions leaving at least four people dead.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. In 2010 Moustafa was spared the death penalty after a retrial changed his original death sentence to 15 years in prison.
(www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=21342)(AP, 9/2/08)(AP, 5/21/09)(AP, 9/28/10)
2008 Jul 30, In Lebanon gunmen attacked a Lebanese military post in the country's east, killing one soldier and wounding another.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2008 Sep 17, In northern Lebanon a gunfight between two rival Christian groups has left two people dead and three wounded.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2008 Nov 21, Germany banned Hezbollah's Lebanon-based satellite television station on grounds that it violates the country's constitution.
2008 Dec 19, In Lebanon thousands of Hezbollah supporters protested the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.
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.
2008 Dec, Moscow agreed to provide Lebanon with 10 MiG-29 fighter jets. A few days later Washington promised to deliver tanks to Beirut.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2009 Mar 16, Lebanon opened its first-ever embassy in Syria in another sign of improving ties between the long-feuding neighbors.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2009 May 16, Ziad al-Homsi, a mayor of a Lebanese village, was arrested by Lebanese special forces and later jailed for 15 years for spying for Mossad. He served three years.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 9, In Saudi Arabia Ali Sibat (49), a Lebanese psychic who made predictions on a satellite TV channel from his home in Beirut, was sentenced to death for practicing witchcraft. He was arrested by religious police in Medina during a pilgrimage there in May, 2008. In 2010 Saudi authorities said Sibat would not be beheaded. A 3-judge panel said that there was not enough evidence that Sibat's actions harmed others. They ordered the case to be retried in a Medina court and recommended that the sentence be commuted and that Sibat be deported.
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.
2009 Nov 19, From Lebanon the militant Hezbollah group said that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has been re-elected as the group's leader for a sixth term.
2009 Dec 2, Lebanon's new government endorsed Hezbollah's right to keep its weapons.
2009 Dec 17, Off the coast of Lebanon a Panamanian-flagged cargo ship carrying thousands of sheep and other livestock went down in heavy rain. At least 9 crew members were killed and dozens were missing.
2009 Dec 19, Lebanon's PM Saad Hariri, who has blamed neighboring Syria for the assassination of his father, visited Damascus for the first time since the 2005 killing, a trip that a close associate said was extremely difficult for him to make.
2009 Dec 23, It was reported that Lebanon's drug-producing heartland is back in business with a resurgence of marijuana and poppy fields, challenging the country's underpowered security forces and adding another dimension to Israel's war with Hezbollah militants.
2009 Dec 26, In Lebanon 2 members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas were killed in an explosion in a Beirut suburb that one report described as a bombing. The attack was said to have involved three bombs tied to each other.
2009 Dec 27, In Lebanon Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called on Egypt to stop building a steel wall along the Gaza border that could obstruct tunnels which provide a lifeline for the blockaded enclave.
(Reuters, 12/27/09)
2010 Jan 8, Israeli cooks doubled the previous record for the world's biggest serving of hummus, set in October by cooks in Lebanon. An adjudicator sent from London by Guinness World Records, Jack Brockbank, confirmed that Israeli chefs now held the record for hummus. He put the exact amount of hummus in a giant satellite dish at 9,017 pounds (4,090 kg).
2010 Jan 13, In Lebanon a bomb apparently meant for a Hezbollah figure went off in the village of Kfar Fila, a southern stronghold of the militant group, wounding his daughter and two other students waiting for their school bus.
2010 Jan 25, An Ethiopian Airlines plane carrying 90 people caught fire and crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from Beirut. At least 34 bodies were recovered, but no survivors were found by nightfall. In 2012 a Lebanese report put the blame on pilot error and inexperience. Ethiopian Airlines immediately rejected the Lebanese findings saying the crash was likely caused by sabotage or a lightning strike.
2010 Apr 8, In Lebanon heavy clashes erupted in a Palestinian military camp in a remote eastern part of the country as a result of infighting among Palestinian factions. The camp is run by the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.
2010 Apr 13, Israel's Supreme Court permitted an Israeli-Arab author to travel to Lebanon to receive a literary award. Ala Hlehel (35) was invited to the Beirut39 Festival this week, but laws in enemy nations prevented him from going. Hlehel is acclaimed for a collection of short stories called "The Circus" and a play.
2010 Apr 16, Lebanese residents dismantled a barbed wire fence set up by Israeli troops in a disputed border area, leading to a call for restraint by UN peacekeepers in the tense region. Army clashes with a powerful clan in the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek wounded 10 people, including five soldiers.
2010 Apr 30, Hezbollah's leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in published remarks that Hezbollah can strike infrastructure deep inside Israel if a new war breaks out, but refused to confirm whether or not the Lebanon-based militants have long-range Scud missiles.
2010 May 9, The second round of Lebanon's municipal elections kicked off in Beirut and the Bekaa region, respectively dominated by PM Saad Hariri and the Shiite party Hezbollah.
2010 May 24, Lebanon's PM Saad Hariri made his first official visit to Washington as premier and planned to discuss Mideast security issues and peace efforts with Pres. Barack Obama.
2010 Jun 4, A Lebanese policeman died after he was critically wounded by a bomblet from a cluster bomb, one of millions dropped by Israel during a devastating 2006 war with Hezbollah.
2010 Jun 15, Interpol said it has arrested Moussa Hamdan (38), a Lebanese national suspected of funneling money to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, in Paraguay in the tri-border area with Argentina and Brazil.
2010 Jun 21, Lebanese authorities granted permission for a blockade-busting ship with activists and aid on board to sail first to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
2010 Jun 30, The Israeli army said an Israeli soldier and several civilians have been arrested for allegedly passing information to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and smuggling drugs across the border.
2010 Jul 4, In Lebanon Grand Ayatollah Mohammed-Hussein Fadlallah (b.1935), revered Shiite cleric and one-time mentor to Hezbollah, died in Beirut.
(SFC, 7/5/10, p.A3)
2010 Jul 7, Israel said that its moves to ease its blockade on Gaza do not include relaxing regulations on Palestinians looking to travel out of the enclave. Israel's military released maps and aerial photographs showing what it described as a network of Hezbollah weapons depots and command centers inside villages in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border.
2010 Jul 15, Lebanon arrested a third person in a widening probe into a suspected network of Israeli spies employed in the country's telecom sector.
2010 Jul 30, The leaders of Syria and Saudi Arabia, once bitter rivals, made an unprecedented show of cooperation, traveling together to Lebanon in hopes of preventing any violence if members of a militant group are indicted in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.
2010 Jul 31, Qatar's emir made a high-profile visit to south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold destroyed in a 2006 war with Israel and whose rebuilding the emirate is helping finance.
2010 Aug 2, US Rep. Howard Berman, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, suspended assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces, saying he cannot be sure the country's armed forces are not working with Hezbollah.
2010 Aug 3, Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire on the border in the most serious clashes since a fierce war four years ago. 3 Lebanese nationals, two soldiers and a journalist, and an Israeli soldier were killed in the shootout which saw both sides threatening retaliation if the shooting recurred. Israeli troops returned the next day to the site of the shootout and cut down a number of trees growing along the border, completing a task which had set off the confrontation.
2010 Aug 10, Lebanon criticized a US Congressman's decision to suspend $100 million of military aid over concerns that Iranian-backed Hezbollah may have influence over the Arab country's army and American-supplied weapons could be used to threaten neighboring Israel.
2010 Aug 14, Lebanese intelligence agents killed two suspected members of an al-Qaida-inspired group in the Bekaa Valley. Local TV station Al-Jadeed reported that one of them was Abdul-Rahman Awad, a leader of the Fatah Islam group, and his aide, Ghazi Faysal Abdullah. They were heading to Iraq to join insurgents.
2010 Aug 15, Israel's military said Hezbollah is moving fighters and weapons into the villages of south Lebanon, building up a secret network of arms warehouses, bunkers and command posts in preparation for war.
2010 Aug 17, Lebanon's Parliament passed a law that for the first time grants the country's Palestinian refugees the right to work in any profession.
2010 Aug 24, In Lebanon 3 Hezbollah members and a follower of the conservative Sunni al-Ahbash group were killed in the residential Bourj Abu Haider district, just outside Beirut's downtown, in running battles with fighters wielding assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The most serious fighting in Beirut since 2008 appears to have been touched off by a traffic dispute that escalated into deadly, hours-long street battles.
2010 Sep 3, In southern Lebanon explosions ripped through a building that might have been used to store weapons by the militant group Hezbollah.
2010 Oct 4, It was reported that Syria has ordered the arrest of 33 people over false testimony given in the UN-backed probe into the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri. Observers said the warrants carried no legal weight in Lebanon as the crime in question took place on Lebanese soil and the complainant as well as most of the defendants are Lebanese.
2010 Oct 13, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, welcomed by thousands of Shiite supporters throwing rose petals, sought to pull Lebanon firmly into his country's fold in a visit that underscored the growing power of Tehran and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah.
2010 Oct 28, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, called on all Lebanese to boycott the UN tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of a former prime minister, saying all information gathered by the team was being sent to Israel. He spoke a day after a crowd of women attacked two UN investigators and a Lebanese interpreter as they gathered evidence at a private gynecology clinic in Beirut. He confirmed that the wives and relatives of Hezbollah commanders and officials were among the clinic's patients. A 13-year-old boy was killed and four other people wounded in a grenade blast outside a scrap metal yard in northern Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared camp.
2010 Nov 12, A Lebanese military court convicted Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical Muslim cleric, of terrorism charges and sentenced him in absentia to life in prison. Bakri was among 54 people sentenced as part of ongoing trials of militants who fought deadly clashes with the Lebanese army in 2007. Bakri lived in Britain for 20 years where he headed the now-disbanded radical Islamist group al-Muhajiroun. He left Britain for Lebanon in 2005 and the British government barred him from returning.
2010 Nov 14, In Lebanon radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed was arrested at his home in Tripoli two days after a military court sentenced him in absentia to life in prison in a terrorism trial.
2010 Nov 16, Lebanese officials said Russia will provide the Lebanese army with free helicopters, tanks and munitions in a deal that will boost the country's poorly equipped military. This news came just days after two key members of the U.S. Congress released their holds on $100 million in US military aid to the Lebanese army.
2010 Nov 16, Lebanese officials said Russia will provide the Lebanese army with free helicopters, tanks and munitions in a deal that will boost the country's poorly equipped military. This news came just days after two key members of the U.S. Congress released their holds on $100 million in US military aid to the Lebanese army.
2010 Nov 23, Lebanese PM Saad Hariri dismissed a media report that implicated Hezbollah and possibly Lebanon's head of police intelligence, Colonel Wissam Hassan, in the 2005 murder of his father, ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
2010 Nov 27, Lebanese PM Saad Hariri expressed concerns for stability in the Middle East as he began a visit to Tehran to rally Iran's support for his efforts to keep Lebanon stable amid tensions over a U.N. probe into the assassination of his father, Rafik Hariri.
2010 Nov 28, More than 250,000 classified US State Department documents were released by online whistleblower WikiLeaks. Among the leaked memos was information that Iranian Red Crescent ambulances were used to smuggle weapons to Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group during its 2006 war with Israel. Memos said the "IRC shipments of medical supplies served also to facilitate weapons shipments." Documents also detailed concerns by US officials in Baghdad about Iran�s influence on Iraq. Memos also said King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had repeatedly urged the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program to stop Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
2010 Dec 3, In Lebanon the militant Hezbollah group said it discovered what it said was an Israeli device on Hezbollah's private telecommunications network in the southern village of Majdel Silim. The device was apparently detonated remotely by the Israelis.
2010 Dec 7, The New York Times reported that US officials believe the militant group Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, has acquired an arsenal of some 50,000 rockets and missiles, raising fears of an enlarged conflict with Israel. Iran and Syria were named as the sources.
2010 Dec 12, Heavy rain and fierce winds pummeled countries across the Middle East, killing a woman in Lebanon, sinking a ship off Israel's coast and prompting Egypt to close its largest Mediterranean port. A factory collapsed in Alexandria. 13 bodies were later pulled from the rubble and at least 15 more workers were believed trapped.
(AP, 12/12/10)(AFP, 12/12/10)(SFC, 12/14/10, p.A2)
2010 Dec 15, Lebanon's army said its military experts have discovered and dismantled two spy cameras planted in the country's mountains by Israel.
2010 Dec 15, Ben Zygier (34) reportedly committed suicide in a high-security Israeli jail after being held for months in great secrecy. His body was soon flown from Israel to Melbourne for burial. The Australian man had reportedly been recruited by the Israeli spy agency Mossad. Zygier's crime was to inadvertently reveal the identity of Ziad al-Homsi to a Lebanese man he was trying to turn into a double agent, but who worked for Lebanese intelligence. Al-Homsi had been approached by Mossad in 2007 and flown to China on the pretext of attending a mayoral convention.
(Reuters, 2/12/13)(AP, 2/19/13)(Reuters, 5/7/13)
2010 Dec 16, Iranian security forces arrested 9 suspects in connection with the Dec 15 bombings that killed 39 people. The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran has cut its annual budget to Lebanon-based Hezbollah more than 40%.
(SFC, 12/17/10, p.A8)
2010 Dec 25, In southern Lebanon Ghandi Sahmarani, the leader of an Al-Qaeda splinter group, was found shot dead execution-style in Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp.
2010 David Hirst authored �Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East."
(Econ, 7/3/10, p.78)
2011 Jan 3, In Lebanon Ahmed Yamani (86), one of the founders of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, died in Beirut after a stroke. The PFLP was launched by the late Palestinian leader George Habash in December 1967, six months after the Arabs lost the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syria's Golan Heights to Israel.
2011 Jan 12, A Lebanese official said Hezbollah ministers and their allies have resigned from the 30-member Cabinet, bringing the government to the brink of collapse. 11 ministers of the March 8 opposition stepped down from the Cabinet over tensions stemming from a UN-backed tribunal investigating the assassination of a Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 1/12/11)(Econ, 1/15/11, p.50)
2011 Jan 13, The collapse of Lebanon's government plunged the country into deep political uncertainty after a year of relative stability, as the president began the process of putting a new administration together.
2011 Jan 17, In Lebanon a long-awaited indictment was released in the death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The indictment was sealed and its contents will likely not become public for weeks. But the court is widely expected to accuse members of Hezbollah of being involved in the killing, something the Shiite militant group has insisted it will not accept.
2011 Jan 25, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman issued a decree appointing former premier Najib Mikati, Harvard-educated billionaire businessman and the candidate backed by Iranian-allied Hezbollah, to form Lebanon's next government, angering Sunnis who protested the rising power of the Shiite militant group by burning tires and torching a van belonging to Al-Jazeera.
2011 Jan 26, Lebanon's Western-backed coalition called on supporters to hold daily sit-ins in downtown Beirut to protest the growing power of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
2011 Feb 17, A Lebanese military court convicted Amin al-Baba of spying for Israel and sentenced him to death. He had been spying for Israel from 1997 until his 2009 arrest.
2011 Feb 27, In Lebanon about 500 people waving flags and chanting for national unity gathered in Beirut in a protest inspired by the wave of demonstrations across the Middle East. The crowd held signs criticizing the sectarian makeup of Lebanon's government.
2011 Mar 13, In Lebanon tens of thousands filled a central Beirut square to mark the 2005 protests that ended Syria's 30-year domination of the country and to demand that the militant group Hezbollah, seen as a proxy of Syria, give up its weapons.
2011 Mar 15, Lebanon's Maronite bishops elected Archbishop Bechara el-Rai as the new patriarch for the Middle East's largest Catholic church.
2011 Mar 23, In Lebanon 7 Estonian tourists were kidnapped while cycling in Zahle.
(SFC, 3/24/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 31, The Israeli military released a map detailing what it says are nearly 1,000 underground bunkers, weapons storage facilities and monitoring sites built by the militant Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.
2011 Apr 5, In Lebanon several hundred inmates demanding improved conditions at the country�s largest prison took three guards hostage and set fire inside one of the buildings. Police stormed the country's largest prison to halt a dayslong riot by the inmates. Two prisoners died during the operation.
2011 Apr 11, In Lebanon a police intelligence officer and a main suspect in the kidnapping of Estonian cyclists were killed in a shootout in the border village of Majdal Anjar.
2011 May 15, A Lebanese soldier was wounded from gunfire coming from the Syrian side of the border.
2011 May 15, Israeli troops clashed with Arab protesters along three hostile borders, leaving at least 12 people dead and dozens wounded in an unprecedented wave of violence marking the anniversary of the mass displacement of Palestinians surrounding Israel's establishment in 1948. Israeli gunfire killed two protesters and wounded dozens as civilians crossed from Syria onto the annexed Golan Heights, raising tensions between Damascus and the Jewish state. 10 of the dead were Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon.
2011 May 27, In southern Lebanon a roadside bomb ripped through a UN convoy carrying Italian peacekeepers, wounding six of them in the first such attack since 2008.
2011 Jun 24, In Lebanon Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said CIA members at the embassy had recruited at least two Hezbollah members and the group was investigating whether the US intelligence agency or another foreign agency recruited a third.
2011 Jun 30, A UN-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri delivered four arrest warrants. Lebanese authorities were given 30 days to serve the indictments on suspects or execute arrest warrants. If they fail, the court can then order the indictment published and advertised in local media. One of the people named is Mustafa Badreddine, believed to have been Hezbollah's deputy military commander. He is the brother-in-law of the late Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh and is suspected of involvement in the 1983 bombings of the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait that killed five people. The other suspects are: Salim Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Assad Sabra and Hassan Anise, who changed his name to Hassan Issa.
2011 Jun, UN Statistics Division said 70 territories would be holding censuses in 2011. Only Iraq, Lebanon, Myanmar, Somalia, Uzbekistan and Western Sahara would fail to hold a count in this ten-year round.
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.71)
2011 Jul 7, Lebanese lawmakers voted to approve the newly formed Hezbollah-dominated Cabinet after a contentious debate over the government's position in confronting the Islamic militant group.
2011 Jul 9, Interpol, at the request of the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon, issued its highest-level international alerts against four Hezbollah men indicted in the 2005 slaying of Lebanon's former prime minister.
2011 Jul 14, In Lebanon 7 Estonian tourists abducted nearly four months ago while cycling through Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley were released in good health. Harakat al-Nahda wal-Islah, or the Movement for Renewal and Reform, had claimed responsibility for the March 23 abduction and demanded an unspecified ransom. Two men suspected of involvement in the kidnapping were killed in a September 20 shootout with police.
2011 Jul 26, In south Lebanon a roadside bomb blew up next to a United Nations convoy carrying French peacekeepers, wounding at least five of them in the second attack on the UN force in two months.
2011 Jul 29, The pre-trial judge for the UN tribunal investigating the death of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, confirmed the names of four Hezbollah suspects indicted in the case. The four named in the indictment are: Salim Ayyash; Mustafa Badreddine; Hussein Anaissi and Assad Sabra. The names of the four, whose whereabouts are unknown, were revealed by the Lebanese government late last month after being leaked by the local media.
2011 Aug 11, In Lebanon a bomb went off in a north Beirut suburb, killing two people and damaging several cars, including one belonging to a judge. One of the two men reportedly handling the bomb died almost immediately, while another was seriously wounded and died later in hospital.
2011 Aug 13, In Lebanon 4 Lebanese and one Sudanese citizen broke out of the heavily-guarded Roumieh prison east of Beirut. The Lebanese were members of the al-Qaida-inspired Fatah Islam group.
2011 Aug 17, Lebanon�s parliament passed legislation banning smoking in closed public places, like bars and restaurants. It will go into effect over the next year.
(SFC, 8/18/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 30, In Lebanon a man in a land dispute shot dead five members of the same family who had gathered in a cemetery in the Bekaa valley area to mark the end of Ramadan.
2011 Oct 18, Syrian army cross-border raids into east Lebanon left 3 dead, including 2 in Qaa and one in Aarsal. The Lebanese government, dominated by the powerful militant group Hezbollah, a strong ally of the Syrian regime, has for the most part stayed mum on the issue.
2011 Oct 19, The UN called on Damascus to end its incursions into Lebanon, which have left three Syrians dead in recent weeks, warning the raids could ignite tensions in the region.
2011 Nov 2, A Syrian security official said Syria has arrested Wael Abbas, a top suspect in the kidnapping of 7 Estonians, freed four months after their abduction in Lebanon, and handed him over to Beirut.
2011 Nov 4, Lebanon�s PM Najib Mikati confirmed in a broadcast interview that opposition figures from neighboring Syria had been kidnapped in Lebanon, but said they were isolated incidents.
2011 Nov 8, The Syrian opposition urged authorities in neighboring Lebanon to act over reports that more than a dozen of their members in that country have been kidnapped.
2011 Nov 11, A Lebanese man had a leg blown off after stepping on a mine planted hours earlier by Syrian troops along Lebanon's northern border.
2011 Nov 21, US officials said Hezbollah has partially unraveled the CIA�s spy network in Lebanon. Several foreign spies working for the CIA were reported captured by Hezbollah in recent months.
(SFC, 11/22/11, p.A4)
2011 Nov 24, Lebanon�s PM Najib Mikati threatened to resign should his Hezbollah-dominated cabinet refuse to fund a UN court probing the murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
2011 Nov 29, Rockets fired from Lebanon struck northern Israel for the first time in more than two years, drawing a burst of Israeli artillery fire across the tense border. No casualties or major damage were reported.
2011 Nov 30, Lebanon's PM Najib Mikati said his country has paid its share of funds for a UN-backed tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of a Lebanese statesman, averting a political crisis in the deeply divided country at a critical time in the Middle East.
2011 Dec 1, Lebanese bankers said they have adopted strict measures to ensure compliance with international sanctions against neighboring Syria and are closely scrutinizing transactions by Syrian clients.
2011 Dec 2, In Syria hours of intense shooting and clashes killed at least four people and wounded dozens more, including an 11-year-old girl who was struck by stray bullets that whizzed across the border into Lebanon. The European Union released the names of Syrian officials and companies to be added to a growing sanctions blacklist.
2011 Dec 4, Pilots at Lebanese national carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) ended a five-day strike in protest at the dismissal of a cancer-stricken colleague which grounded dozens of flights at Beirut airport.
2011 Dec 9, In Lebanon a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying UN peacekeepers in the south, wounding five French soldiers and a Lebanese bystander.
2011 Dec 18, In Lebanon a masked gunman shot and killed a bodyguard of the commander of the mainstream Fatah group's armed faction at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon. The camp houses more than 65,000 refugees.
2011 Dec 20, Lebanese troops found the body of American John Redwine, who had been missing for three days in a remote mountainous area of the country.
2012 Jan 12, Lebanese media and officials said the Lebanese army has detained a man on suspicion of collaborating for years with Israel's Mossad spy agency. Elias Younes, a retired employee of the state telecommunications company Ogero, was arrested earlier in the week.
2012 Jan 14, Lebanese citizen Hassan Obeid (17) died in a clinic where he was rushed after being hit in the stomach by a bullet in his northern hometown of Bkarha coming from the Syrian side of the border.
2012 Jan 15, UN chief Ban Ki-moon, speaking in Beirut, called for an end to Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, saying the illegal building of settlements worked against a two-state solution. Ban Ki-moon also demanded that Syria's president stop killing his own people.
2012 Jan 15, In Lebanon a five-story residential building collapsed after days of heavy rains, killing 27 people, mostly foreign workers. The building's owner, Michel Saadeh, was arrested the next day.
2012 Jan 21, Lebanese officials said the Syrian navy arrested three Lebanese fishermen and confiscated their boat in Lebanese waters off the northern town of Arida.
2012 Apr 9, Syrian forces fired across the border into a refugee camp in Turkey, wounding at least five people. Lebanese journalist Ali Shaaban, who works as a cameraman for Al Jadeed TV station, was shot and killed as he was filming in the northern Wadi Khaled area on the Lebanese side of the border. 12 members of the Syrian security forces were killed as clashes ensued in several regions. Human Rights Watch said it has documented the killings by Syrian forces of 85 civilians, including women and children, and the summary executions of at least 16 wounded or captured opposition fighters. The Syrian rebel army said it is ready to respect an April 10 truce brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan if the regime of President Bashar al-Assad abides by the peace deal.
2012 Apr 22, In Lebanon 7 people were injured when an explosion apparently caused by a bomb shook the Nocean restaurant at midnight in the coastal town of Tyre.
2012 May 6, In Lebanon more than 1,000 people marched in Beirut calling for the establishment of a secular state in the country which is ruled by a system of power-sharing along religious lines.
2012 May 9, In Syria bullets flying across the Syrian border into Lebanon killed a 70-year-old woman and wounded her daughter. A roadside bomb struck a Syrian military truck, wounding 6 soldiers just seconds after a convoy carrying the head of the UN observer mission passed by.
2012 May 12, In Lebanon an army officer was killed by sniper fire after clashes broke out between the army and a group of young Islamists, who were demonstrating in Tripoli for the release of a terrorism suspect. A resident of the largely Sunni district of Kobbe was killed in clashes between factions supporting and opposed to the revolt in neighboring Syria. Five people were left injured. Shadi Mawlawi, an outspoken Lebanese critic of Syrian President Bashar Assad, was arrested and set off several days of clashes in northern Lebanon. Mawlawi was released on May 22.
2012 May 13, In Lebanon ongoing clashes in the northern city of Tripoli between factions supporting and opposed to the revolt in neighboring Syria left one person dead.
2012 May 14, Clashes in Lebanon continued for a third day, with gunmen firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades as sectarian tensions spilled across the border from Syria.
2012 May 15, Lebanese troops deployed in tense areas of the northern city of Tripoli after three days of sectarian clashes killed at least eight people in a spillover of the conflict in Syria. Officials said two of the eight people died of their wounds overnight.
2012 May 18, In Lebanon shelling between two pro- and anti-Syrian neighborhoods in the port city of Tripoli left three people wounded. Clashes in the area over the past week have left 10 people dead.
2012 May 20, In north Lebanon army troops shot dead a Sunni cleric when his convoy failed to stop at a checkpoint, the scene of deadly clashes linked to the uprising in Syria. Another religious figure in the car of cleric Ahmad Abdel Wahed, known for his support of the anti-regime uprising in neighboring Syria, was also killed.
2012 May 21, Lebanese Sunni groups supporting and opposing the Damascus regime fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns in Beirut, killing at least two people.
2012 May 22, In Syria intense clashes were reported between troops and defectors in the towns of Atareb in Aleppo province and Kfar Rouma in Idlib. 11 Lebanese Shiites were abducted in Aleppo province.
2012 May 24, Lebanese security forces stormed a building in Beirut after a nighttime shootout with gunmen holed up inside a flat, in an incident which left 2 dead and 7 wounded. The spark for the shootout was a personal dispute between at least one of the dead men and a woman in her early 20s. The dead man and the woman, detained in the incident, were Syrian nationals.
2012 Jun 1, In Syria gunmen killed 11 workers at a state-owned fertilizer factory near Qusair, Homs province, the second execution-style shooting reported in Syria in less than a week. A previously unknown Syrian rebel group said it is holding 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims kidnapped on May 22 after crossing into Syria from Turkey on their way to Lebanon.
2012 Jun 2, In northern Lebanon gunbattles between pro- and anti-Syrian groups killed at least one person and wounded nine.
2012 Jun 6, Clashes broke out between Syrian troops and residents of the border town of Arsal in eastern Lebanon after a Lebanese man was killed and three wounded at dawn as they tried to cross the border into Syria.
2012 Jun 8, Lebanese politician, diplomat, and press baron Ghassan Tueni (b.1926) died in hospital.
2012 Jun 18, In Lebanon 2 Palestinians were killed in clashes with the army at refugee camps that also left several people wounded, including soldiers.
2012 Jun 25, In Lebanon the headquarters of Al-Jadeed TV, a leading TV station in Beirut, was attacked with burning tires after it hosted a hard-line Sunni Muslim cleric who harshly criticized the country's Shiite Muslim leaders.
2012 Jul 2, Lebanon's General Security agency said a rocket fired from Lebanon wounded two Syrian border police. The Syrians pursued the gunmen and a Lebanese General Security post was hit.
2012 Jul 3, A US federal judge ordered Iran to pay more than $813 million in damages and interest to the families of 241 US soldiers killed in the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Lebanon. After this opinion, this court will have issued over $8.8 billion in judgments against Iran as a result of the October 23, 1983, Beirut bombing.
2012 Jul 7, Syria's military began large-scale exercises simulating defense against outside "aggression." Activists struggling to topple the regime reported fierce government offensives to try to retake rebellious areas outside of Aleppo and near Damascus. Shells fired from inside Syria killed 2 Lebanese civilians and injured 10 others. 77 people were killed across Syria, among them 39 civilians, 25 soldiers and 13 rebels.
2012 Jul 19, In Lebanon investigative Judge Ghassan Oeidat indicted 88 people allegedly involved in 2007 fighting against the army in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, demanding that some of them face the death penalty. Oeidat also ordered the release of 126 others.
2012 Jul 20, The UN refugee agency said up to 30,000 Syrians have fled into Lebanon over the past 48 hours. The UN Security Council added a "final" 30 days to the mandate of the UN Supervision Mission, tasked with overseeing a ceasefire that was supposed to have taken effect in April but which has been violated daily.
2012 Aug 13, A Syrian rebel group kidnapped Hassan al-Muqdad, accusing him of being a sniper and a member of Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.
2012 Aug 15, The large Lebanese Shiite clan called Muqdad claimed it had kidnapped 33 Syrians and a Turkish man after a family member was abducted two days earlier by a Syrian rebel group which accused him of being a Hezbollah sniper. Dozens more Syrians were seized and their shops vandalized by rioters in southern Shiite areas of Beirut. Rioters closed the road to Beirut airport and to the border with Syria.
2012 Aug 15, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar all ordered their citizens to leave Lebanon.
2012 Aug 18, Lebanese security officials said that five more Syrians were abducted in Beirut's southern suburbs overnight.
2012 Aug 21, In Lebanon overnight clashes between supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad left two dead and as many as 45 wounded.
2012 Aug 22, Lebanese security sources said at least eight people have been killed in clashes between rival pro- and anti-Damascus gunmen in the city of Tripoli.
2012 Aug 23, In Lebanon fresh fighting erupted in the northern city of Tripoli leaving one dead and two wounded, despite a truce to halt days of violence between pro- and anti-Damascus gunmen.
2012 Aug 24, In Lebanon new clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian factions in Tripoli killed two people holing a fragile truce and stoking fears of a spillover of bloodshed.
2012 Aug 25, In eastern Lebanon armed men kidnapped a Kuwaiti. An official said there had been a number of kidnappings for ransom which are unrelated to political tensions.
2012 Aug 25, Syrian rebels freed one of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims they have been holding since May 22, in a move aiming to ease cross-border tensions.
2012 Aug 31, Syrian troops fired at least 25 shells overnight striking a Lebanese Christian village on the northern border, wounding one person and causing damage.
2012 Sep 3, In Lebanon a smoking ban in all closed public spaces, including coffee shops, restaurants and bars, went into force under new legislation that promises hefty fines for lawbreakers.
2012 Sep 8, Sierra Leone said that 10 suspected Iranian ships "hiding" under the Sierra Leonean flag "have recently been removed from the register." The action was in relation to a vessel that was seized in Lebanon recently carrying arms for Syria, and allegedly flying the Sierra Leone flag.
2012 Sep 14, Pope Benedict XVI appealed for peace and reconciliation among religions as violence over an anti-Islam movie spilled over into Lebanon within hours of his arrival. One protester was killed in the northern city of Tripoli in clashes with security forces after a crowd set fire to a KFC and a Hardee's restaurant to protest against an anti-Muslim film.
2012 Sep 15, In Lebanon Pope Benedict XVI appealed for religious freedom in the Middle East, calling it fundamental for stability in a region bloodied by sectarian strife.
2012 Sep 17, Syrian warplanes hit Lebanese territory. 4 missiles hit the border town of Arsal, but no casualties were reported.
(SFC, 9/18/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 2, A Lebanese security official says Hezbollah commander Ali Hussein Nassif and several other fighters from the militant group have been killed in Syria.
2012 Oct 12, Lebanon's state run news agency said three members of an al-Qaida-inspired group have escaped from a prison in eastern Beirut.
2012 Oct 19, In Lebanon a car bomb ripped through eastern Beirut in the most serious blast this city has seen in years. 8 people were killed, including intelligence chief, Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan. His probe over the summer led to the arrest of former Information Minister Michel Samaha, one of Syrian Pres. Assad's most loyal allies in Lebanon.
2012 Oct 22, Lebanese troops launched a major security operation to open all roads and force gunmen off the streets. Sectarian clashes overnight left four dead as Syria's civil war spilled into neighboring countries.
2012 Nov 11, In southern Lebanon shooting between Sunni and Shiite Muslim gunmen killed three people and wounded at least five in the port city of Sidon.
2012 Nov 24, Lebanese soldiers raided an apartment in the country's south and arrested five Syrian nationals for possession of explosives.
2012 Nov 30, Lebanon dispatched troops to Tripoli as a precautionary measure after an announcement that 20 Lebanese Sunnis had been killed inside Syria while fighting alongside rebels, who are predominantly Sunnis as well.
2012 Dec 2, The Syrian conflict spilled into Lebanon, after Lebanese troops exchanged fire with rebels across the border late today.
2012 Dec 5, In Lebanon gunmen loyal to opposite sides in neighboring Syria's civil war battled in the streets of Tripoli where two days of fighting killed at least five people and wounded 45.
2012 Dec 9, In Lebanon four people were killed in fighting in the city of Tripoli between gunmen loyal to opposite sides in Syria's civil war.
2012 In Lebanon the Beirut-based pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Mayadeen was launched. It was backed by Iran and Syria.
(Econ, 2/14/15, p.41)
2013 Jan 9, The fiercest winter storm to hit the Mideast in years brought a rare foot of snow to Jordan, caused fatal accidents in Lebanon and the West Bank, and disrupted traffic on the Suez Canal in Egypt. At least eight people died across the region.
2013 Jan 18, In Lebanon protesters demanding the release of Islamist prisoners in the city of Tripoli threw a grenade at the convoy of Sports and Youth Minister Faisal Karameh that set fire to one of the vehicles. 4 people were wounded.
2013 Jan 22, Syrian government forces and rebels battled in the suburbs of Damascus and elsewhere. Four buses carrying Russian citizens escaping the civil war crossed into Lebanon, in the first evacuation organized by Moscow since the start of the conflict nearly two years ago.
2013 Jan 30, The Lebanese military said that Israeli warplanes have sharply increased their activity over Lebanon in the past week, including at least 12 sorties in less than 24 hours in the country's south.
2013 Feb 1, In Lebanon at least three people were killed and 10 others wounded in clashes between the army and gunmen in the northeastern town of Arsal near the border with Syria. Residents of Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town, are known to be sympathetic to the Syrian opposition, and arms smuggling into Syria is widespread in the area.
2013 Feb 4, A Lebanese judge issued arrest warrants for a top Syrian intelligence official and his aide for their alleged involvement in a bombing plot in Lebanon. Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk was accused of being involved with Lebanon's former information minister, Michel Samaha, who allegedly plotted a wave of attacks in Lebanon at the behest of Syria.
2013 Feb 5, Bulgaria linked Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah to the bomb attack on a bus last July that killed five Israeli tourists. Two of the suspects linked to the bombing had entered the country with an Australian and a Canadian passport.
2013 Feb 6, A top Bulgarian security official said the two living suspects behind a bus attack that killed five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last year have been identified and both are now living in Lebanon.
2013 Feb 13, Lebanon's state-run news agency said protesters have closed two major roads in northern Lebanon to prevent fuel tankers from crossing into Syria.
2013 Feb 20, A Lebanese judge indicted three people, including a former Cabinet minister and a top Syrian intelligence general, in a bombing plot in Lebanon, a move that could raise tension in Lebanon over the civil war in neighboring Syria. Judge Riad Abu Ghaida demanded the death penalty for former information minister, Michel Samaha, Syrian Brig. Gen. Ali Mamlouk and a Syrian colonel, identified only by his first name, Adnan.
2013 Mar 15, In central Lebanon at least eight Syrians were killed and 29 were injured when the bus they were traveling in from Syria overturned in the mountains.
2013 Mar 18, In Lebanon several hundred demonstrators angry over attacks against Sunni Muslim clerics blocked roads with garbage bins and burning tires in Beirut and other Lebanese cities.
2013 Mar 21, Syrian state-run TV in Damascus said authorities have handed over to Beirut Hassane Serourto, a Lebanese fighter captured inside Syria in an ambush by government troops on Nov 30.
2013 Mar 22, Lebanon�s PM Najib Mikati submitted his resignation.
(Econ, 3/30/13, p.47)
2013 Mar 22, In Lebanon gunmen who support and oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad clashed in the northern city of Tripoli, leaving six people dead and more than 20 wounded.
2013 Mar 23, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman formally accepted the resignation of PM Najib Mikati, who stepped down blaming government infighting during a time of rising sectarian tensions.
2013 Mar 30, In Lebanon shells from inside Syria exploded in 4 villages late today near the northern border. Residents reported an unpleasant smell after the strikes.
2013 Apr 3, a Syrian jet fired a missile that slammed into a house on the outskirts of the Lebanese border town of Arsal.
2013 Apr 6, Lebanon�s President Michel Suleiman asked Tammam Salam (68) to form a new Cabinet. The Beirut legislator and former culture minister was chosen for the job by 124 members of the 128-seat parliament.
2013 Apr 20, On the Lebanese side of the Syrian border, schools were evacuated in the mostly Shiite villages of al-Qasr, Bouweydah and Hawch amid fears that Syria's rebels could target the residents.
2013 Apr 23, Two Syrian rockets struck Lebanon, causing material damage and heightening tensions between Lebanese Shiite and Sunni communities over neighboring Syria's civil war.
2013 Apr 24, In northern Lebanon a grenade, left behind from the 2007 fighting in a Palestinian refugee camp exploded and wounded seven schoolchildren.
2013 Apr 24, Lebanon's leading caricaturist Pierre Sadek (76), died. He was famous for his decades of work poking fun at politicians.
2013 Apr 25, Israel shot down a drone as it approached its northern coast from neighboring Lebanon, raising suspicions that the Hezbollah militant group was behind the infiltration attempt.
2013 Apr 30, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, said that Syrian rebels will not be able to defeat President Bashar Assad's regime militarily, warning that Syria's "real friends," including his Iranian-backed militant group, were ready to intervene on the government's side.
2013 Apr 30, Lebanese security officials detained Hussein Hojeiri, the man behind the 2011 kidnapping of 7 Estonian tourists, in the eastern Bekaa Valley. He confessed to carrying out the kidnapping, purportedly on the orders of an Iraqi al-Qaida figure.
2013 May 11, Canada deported Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad, a former Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine commando, to Lebanon. He had taken part in a 1968 assault on an El Al jet in Athens that killed an Israeli man.
(Reuters, 5/13/13)
2013 May 23, In Lebanon opponents and supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad traded heavy machine gun fire and mortar shells in the port city of Tripoli, leaving 5 people dead in what was described as some of the heaviest fighting there in years.
2013 May 25, In Lebanon 4 people were killed by sniper fire as Syrian fighting spilled over, bringing the week's death toll to 29 including three Lebanese soldiers.
2013 May 26, In Lebanon a pair of rockets slammed into a car dealership and a residential building in strongholds of Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group in Beirut. They struck just hours after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed to propel Syrian President Bashar Assad to victory.
2013 May 28, In Lebanon gunmen killed 3 soldiers in a drive-by shooting on a government checkpoint near the Syrian border. Two rockets fired from Syria struck the Lebanese town of Hermel, wounding several people.
2013 May 31, Lebanon's parliament extended its term 17 months because of deteriorating security conditions related to Syria's civil war. It postponed elections from June until November 2014.
2013 Jun 1, Eighteen rockets and mortar rounds fired from Syria struck the Baalbek region of eastern Lebanon. There were no casualties.
2013 Jun 2, In Lebanon a Hezbollah fighter and several rebels were killed in overnight clashes in a remote area between Baalbek and the Syrian border. Clashes raged into the night between Sunnis and Alawites in Tripoli, killing one person and wounding at least 14 people.
2013 Jun 9, In Lebanon men wielding batons and wearing yellow arm bands evoking Hezbollah attacked protesters outside the Iranian Embassy in Beirut during a rally against the militant group's participation in the Syrian civil war. One protester was killed.
2013 Jun 11, In northeastern Lebanon six rockets landed in Hermel, wounding four residents. Syrian rebels have threatened to punish Hezbollah for its support of Assad.
2013 Jun 12, A Syrian government helicopter fired three missiles on a border town in Lebanon, lightly wounding one person. Heavy clashes were reported in Homs, mostly in the neighborhood of Wadi Sayeh. At least 30 Shiite Muslims were killed in Hatlah, a village in Deir el-Zour province. Antigovernment activists put the total at 60 and said most of the dead were pro-government militia fighters.
(AP, 6/12/13)(SFC, 6/13/13, p.A4)
2013 Jun 14, Hezbollah's leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah vowed that his Lebanon-based militants would keep fighting in Syria "wherever needed" after the US agreed to arm the rebels in the civil war.
2013 Jun 16, Four Lebanese Shiite Muslim men were found killed in an ambush in northeastern Lebanon.
2013 Jun 18, In Lebanon clashes erupted between unknown gunmen and followers of Sheik Ahmad al-Assir, a radical Sunni cleric, in an eastern suburb of the port city of Sidon. Two people were killed. Al-Assir has threatened to clear apartments occupied by Hezbollah supporters in the mostly Sunni city.
2013 Jun 20, Lebanese demonstrators clashed with police in downtown Beirut during a protest against the extension of parliament's term earlier this month.
2013 Jun 20, Saudi Arabia said it plans to deport Lebanese citizens who support Hezbollah because of the militant group's role in the Syrian civil war.
2013 Jun 23, In Lebanon clashes erupted in the south between factions supporting opposing sides in the Syrian civil war leaving 2 Lebanese soldiers killed in Sidon.
2013 Jun 24, Lebanese army units battled followers of hard-line Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir holed up in a mosque complex in Sidon, the second day of fighting that has left at least 16 soldiers dead and 50 wounded. At least three of al-Assir's supporters died in the fighting.
2013 Jun 25, Lebanese troops detonated booby traps at a complex captured from followers of a hardline Sunni cleric, securing the area after two days of fighting in the port city of Sidon. Official reports said at least 17 soldiers were killed and 50 wounded in the fighting while more than 20 of al-Assir's supporters died in the battle.
2013 Jul 5, More than 300 Lebanese rallied in the coastal city of Sidon in support of Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir, a fugitive Sunni Islamist cleric, a day after an audio recording believed to be his voice urged followers to demonstrate.
(Reuters, 7/5/13)
2013 Jul 9, In Lebanon a car bomb rocked a stronghold of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group south of Beirut, setting several cars on fire and wounding at least 53 people.
(AP, 7/9/13)(SFC, 7/10/13, p.A3)
2013 Jul 11, The Lebanese Psychiatric Society said homosexuality is not an illness and does not need to be treated.
(Econ, 7/20/13, p.45)
2013 Jul 17, Gunmen assassinated Mohammed Darrar Jammo (44), a pro-government Syrian journalist, at his home in southern Lebanon, shooting him nearly 30 times in the latest sign of Syria's civil war spilling over into its smaller neighbor. On July 19 the Lebanese army said the killers had been detained and their weapons seized. On July 30 Lebanese news reported that Jammo's Lebanese wife, Siham Younes, and her brother and nephew were arrested after an investigation showed they were behind the killing.
(AP, 7/17/13)(Reuters, 7/19/13)(AP, 7/30/13)
2013 Jul 22, The EU agreed to put the armed wing of Hezbollah on its terrorism blacklist, a move driven by concerns over the Lebanese militant group's roles in a bus bombing in Bulgaria and the Syrian war.
(Reuters, 7/22/13)
2013 Aug 7, An explosion at the border with Lebanon wounded 4 Israeli soldiers. The Lebanese Army said the troops were 400 meters inside Lebanese territory when the blast occurred. The area was known for having land mines.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 9, In Lebanon gunmen abducted a Turkish Airlines pilot and his assistant in Beirut, forcing them from a bus as it took them from the airport in the early hours of the morning. A group claimed responsibility for the abduction in the name of nine Lebanese Shi'ite Muslims kidnapped last year in Azaz near the Turkish-Syrian border. On Aug 20 a Lebanese prosecutor charged 13 people in connection with the kidnapping.
(Reuters, 8/9/13)(AP, 8/20/13)
2013 Aug 11, Lebanese security forces said gunmen have shot the Sunni mayor of Arsal town and killed two of his companions just hours after he oversaw a hostage swap with a rival clan in an area increasingly riven by sectarian divisions.
(Reuters, 8/11/13)
2013 Aug 15, In Lebanon a car bomb ripped through the southern Beirut stronghold of the militant group Hezbollah. 24 people were killed.
(Reuters, 8/16/13)
2013 Aug 16, In Lebanon a car bombing, blamed on Sunni extremists, killed 22 people in a Shiite neighborhood south of Beirut.
(SFC, 8/17/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 23, The Lebanese government said its troops captured a truck carrying gas masks near the Syrian border.
2013 Aug 23, In Lebanon twin explosions outside two mosques killed at least 47 people and wounded hundreds in apparently coordinated attacks in the northern city of Tripoli. Suspect Sheik Ahmad al-Ghareb was arrested the next day.
(Reuters, 8/23/13)(AP, 8/24/13)(SSFC, 8/25/13, p.A5)
2013 Aug 30, Lebanon charged five men, including a Sunni Muslim cleric close to the Syrian government, over bomb attacks on two mosques in the northern city of Tripoli last week that killed at least 42 people.
(Reuters, 8/30/13)
2013 Sep 28, In Lebanon Hezbollah fighters and residents of the eastern city of Baalbek exchanged fire, leaving 3 dead and six wounded.
2013 Oct 10, The Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague published an arrest warrant for a fifth suspect in the 2005 bombing on the Beirut waterfront that killed Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri and 21 others, almost tipping the country into civil war. The court said judges had secretly indicted Hassan Habib Merhi on July 31 but had given the Lebanese government time to attempt to arrest the suspect before making the warrant public.
(Reuters, 10/10/13)
2013 Oct 11, Lebanese singer and composer Wadih Safi (92) died. His strong, clear voice propelled him to fame throughout the Arab world.
2013 Oct 22, In Lebanon a child (13) was killed and 11 other people wounded in a gunfight in Tripoli between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
2013 Oct 24, Lebanese security officials said at least 6 people have been killed and 50 wounded in fighting in Tripoli over the past four days.
2013 Oct 26, In Lebanon 3 more people died overnight in Tripoli in clashes between supporters and opponents of Syria's regime.
2013 Oct 28, Lebanon's army began deploying in Tripoli following a week of bloodshed in which 14 have people died and more than 80 were wounded. Two more people died Tripoli in fighting between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese army.
(AFP, 10/28/13)(Reuters, 10/28/13)
2013 Nov 7, Syrian troops backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and other pro-regime militiamen retook a major rebel enclave south of Damascus, severing a key opposition supply line.
2013 Nov 12, In Lebanon Sunni sheikh Saadeddine Ghiyeh, a cleric close to the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, was shot dead in the northern town of Tripoli.
2013 Nov 14, In Lebanon Hassan Nasralla, the leader of the militant Hezbollah group, showed up at a Shiite religious ceremony in southern Beirut, vowing to keep his fighters in neighboring Syria as long as needed to shore up President Bashar Assad's struggle against Syria's rebels.
2013 Nov 16, A local official said thousands of Syrian refugees have poured into Lebanon over the past two days as fighting between government forces and rebels has flared near the border.
2013 Nov 19, In Lebanon 2 suicide bombers detonated explosions outside the Iranian Embassy in a mainly Shiite district of Beirut, killing 25 people, including the Iranian cultural attach�, apparently in retaliation for the Lebanese group Hezbollah's support of Syrian President Assad.
2013 Nov 23, Lebanese authorities said they have identified the two men who launched a double suicide attack on the Iranian embassy this week which killed 25 people in Hezbollah's southern Beirut bastion.
2013 Nov 27, In Syria a nephew of Lebanon's agriculture minister was killed along with three other Hezbollah fighters in the Qalamoun region north of Damascus.
2013 Nov 30, In Lebanon clashes between supporters and opponents of the Syrian government killed 4 people in the northern city of Tripoli.
(Reuters, 11/30/13)
2013 Dec 1, In Lebanon 3 people were killed overnight in fighting in the northern city of Tripoli. A security source said 10 people, including a woman and an off-duty soldier, have been killed in two days of sectarian clashes in northern Lebanon linked to the war in neighbouring Syria.
2013 Dec 2, Lebanon�s government authorized the army to take control of Tripoli following three days of sectarian clashes that left 12 dead.
(SFC, 12/3/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 4, In Lebanon Hassan al-Laqis (53), a senior Hezbollah leader, was killed overnight upon returning home from work in Beirut. Hezbollah accused Israel for the assassination.
(AP, 12/4/13)(SFC, 12/5/13, p.A5)
2013 Dec 15, Israeli soldier Sgt Shlomi Cohen (31) was killed by a Lebanese soldier along the border. Israeli troops searching the area fired towards two suspects who were standing on the other side of the border, hitting one of them.
2013 Dec 17, In eastern Lebanon a car bomb exploded at dawn near a Hezbollah position, causing an unknown number of casualties.
2013 Dec 21, In Lebanon Hezbollah fighters ambushed a group of Syrian rebels as they infiltrated through a smuggler route outside Nahle. About 30 rebels were reported killed.
(SFC, 12/25/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 27, In Lebanon a powerful car bomb tore through a business district in the center of Beirut killing Mohammed Chatah (Shatah), a former finance minister and senior aide to former PM Saad Hariri. 7 others were also killed in the blast. Hariri blamed Hezbollah for the assassination. A Lebanese teenager seen posing for a group "selfie" in front of the bomb-laden car moments before it exploded died of his injuries the next day.
(AP, 12/27/13)(AFP, 12/28/13)(Econ, 1/4/14, p.34)
2013 Dec 29, Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman said Saudi Arabia is giving the Lebanese army $3 billion to buy equipment from France, calling it the largest grant ever given to the country's armed forces.
(Reuters, 12/29/13)(SSFC, 1/5/14, p.A5)
2013 Dec 29, The Israeli military fired a barrage of shells into southern Lebanon in retaliation after five Katyusha-style rockets were launched against the Jewish state. The attacks struck uninhabited areas of both Israel and Lebanon without causing any casualties or damage.
2013 Dec 30, Lebanese forces fired on Syrian aircraft that violated the country's airspace, the first time they have done so since Syria's uprising broke out three years ago.
2014 Jan 1, Lebanon�s defense minister said Lebanese troops have arrested Saudi citizen Majid al-Majid, the "emir" of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an al-Qaeda-linked group that claimed a double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut in November. DNA testing confirmed the identity of al-Majid.
2014 Jan 1, Syrian warplanes bombed a barren range of Lebanese hills used by Syrian rebels and refugees to cross between the two countries, wounding at least 10 Syrians who were rushed to hospital in a nearby Lebanese town.
2014 Jan 2, In Lebanon a large car bomb killed 5 people and wounded at least 20 in a Hezbollah bastion in south Beirut. The al Qaeda-linked militant group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS aka ISIL)) soon claimed responsibility. On Jan 6 an employee of Hezbollah's Al-Manar television died from wounds sustained in a suicide bombing.
(AFP, 1/2/14)(Reuters, 1/4/14)(AFP, 1/6/14)
2014 Jan 4, The Lebanese army said Saudi citizen Majid al-Majid, the "emir" of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades fighting in Syria, died while undergoing treatment at the central military hospital.
2014 Jan 5, In Lebanon one man was shot dead and six people were wounded in clashes in Tripoli between districts that support rival sides in neighboring Syria's civil war.
(Reuters, 1/5/14)
2014 Jan 16, In Lebanon a suicide car bomber killed 3 people in a Hezbollah stronghold on the northern border with Syria.
(Reuters, 1/16/14)
2014 Jan 17, In Lebanon rocket fire into the border town of Arsal killed at 8 people, including 5 children. At least 20 rockets launched from Syria struck Lebanese frontier areas.
(Reuters, 1/17/14)(AFP, 1/17/14)
2014 Jan 20, Lebanese medical and security sources said sectarian sniper fire in Tripoli has killed 5 people since Jan 18.
(Reuters, 1/20/14)
2014 Jan 21, In Lebanon a suicide bomber killed 4 people in a residential district of southern Beirut known for its support of the powerful Shi'ite Muslim military and political movement Hezbollah.
(Reuters, 1/21/14)
2014 Feb 1, In Lebanon a car bomb blew up near a gas station in the Shiite town of Hermel in the northeast, killing at least 3 people.
2014 Feb 3, In Lebanon a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt inside a public minibus in Choueifa, home to a mixed Christian and Druze population, killing at least one person.
2014 Feb 12, Lebanon's army arrested Naim Abbas, a senior al Qaeda-linked militant, described by security sources as a "mastermind of car bombs" that targeted Shi'ite areas of the country.
(Reuters, 2/12/14)
2014 Feb 12, Syrian government forces and fighters from Lebanese ally Hezbollah pounded Syria's strategic border town of Yabroud in apparent preparation for a new offensive to flush out rebels. At least 51 people were reportedly killed in Aleppo, mainly by barrel bombs dropped on eight rebel-held districts from helicopters.
(Reuters, 2/12/14)(AP, 2/13/14)
2014 Feb 15, Lebanon announced a new government, breaking a 10-month political deadlock during which spillover violence from neighboring Syria worsened internal instability.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 19, In Lebanon 2 suicide bombers targeted the Iranian cultural center in Beirut, killing 8 people and themselves in an attack claimed by Sunni militants who said it was a response to the intervention of Iran and Hezbollah in the Syrian war. On March 8 the al-Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades issued a statement on militant websites apologizing for the civilian deaths.
(Reuters, 2/19/14)(AFP, 2/20/14)(AP, 3/8/14)
2014 Feb 20, In Lebanon Abdelrahman Diab (Abdel Rahman Youssef), an Alawite official in the Arab Democratic Party, was gunned down in Tripoli. A 2nd man, a Sunni, was also killed.
(AFP, 2/20/14)(Reuters, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 22, In Lebanon a suicide bombing against soldiers killed at least 3 people in Hermel. The Nusra Front, an al-Qaida-linked group, soon claimed responsibility.
2014 Feb 23, In southern Lebanon 2 UN peacekeepers died and three were injured in a car accident.
2014 Feb 24, In Lebanon actress and UN special envoy Angelina Jolie completed a surprise 3-day visit to Lebanon to draw attention to the challenges facing thousands of Syrian refugee children and to highlight the massive displacement Syria's three-year conflict has created.
2014 Feb 24, Two Israeli raids hit a Hezbollah target on the border of Lebanon and Syria. Lebanon's National News Agency soon confirmed the report, adding that the raids struck the countryside of the Lebanese border town of Nabi Sheet.
2014 Mar 5, Israel's army struck 2 members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as they tried to plant a bomb near the Israeli-Syrian border.
2014 Mar 13, In Lebanon clashes broke out in Tripoli after gunmen fatally shot a Sunni man who had Alawite relatives and lived in a mostly Alawite area of the city.
(Reuters, 3/16/14)
2014 Mar 15, In Lebanon 10 people were reported killed in the last 48 hours of clashes in Tripoli linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria.
(Reuters, 3/15/14)
2014 Mar 16, In Lebanon a soldier and a civilian were killed in fighting between Sunni Muslims and Alawites in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, bringing the death toll from four days of clashes to 12. A suicide car bomb attack in a Hezbollah-dominated area of eastern Lebanon, near the Syrian border, left two people dead.
(Reuters, 3/16/14)(AFP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 18, Gunmen from Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group and local Shiite residents tightened their chokehold on Arsal, a Sunni town near the Syrian border, sparking concerns the standoff would cut off aid to thousands of Syrian refugees stranded in the area.
2014 Mar 21, In Lebanon people were killed in Tripoli in fighting between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
(Reuters, 3/21/14)
2014 Mar 23, In Lebanon hours-long clashes overnight in a Beirut neighborhood between supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad killed one person, prompting Lebanese troops to deploy in the area to calm tensions.
2014 Mar 27, Lebanon�s government ordered the army and security forces to control the security situation in Tripoli and to seize arms caches in the city. A soldier was killed by two masked men on motorbikes in Tripoli. A day earlier a municipal worker was murdered in the same fashion.
2014 Mar 28, A Lebanese policeman was killed by unknown gunmen in the northern city of Tripoli.
2014 Mar 29, In Lebanon 3 soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle at a checkpoint at Aqabet al-Jurd in the Arsal region.
2014 Mar, In Syria Hezbollah commandos infiltrated Syrian rebel-held territory near the Lebanese border, watching rebel fighters come and go from a two-story villa before slipping inside to plant a powerful bomb. The next morning, they detonated it as three rebel explosive experts and four assistants met inside, turning the villa to rubble in seconds.
2014 Apr 1, Lebanon's parliament approved a much-anticipated law that protects women against domestic violence after a years-long campaign by women's rights activists and the recent slaying of four women.
2014 Apr 2, Lebanese troops moved into a restive Sunni area in the northern city of Tripoli, in the second stage of a plan aimed at quelling deadly Syria-linked violence there.
2014 Apr 3, The number of Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon officially topped 1 million.
(Reuters, 4/3/14)
2014 Apr 7, In Lebanon at least 8 people were killed in fighting between Palestinian factions at the Mieh Mieh refugee camp near Sidon.
(Reuters, 4/7/14)
2014 Apr 11, Lebanon launched a fourth round of polio immunization, trying to prevent the disease spreading from neighboring Syria along with the tide of refugees fleeing the three-year conflict.
(Reuters, 4/11/14)
2014 Apr 12, Police in Lebanon arrested Marcello Dell�Utri, the man who created Forze Italia! in the 1990s. He had disappeared in the face of a 7-year sentence for aiding and abetting mobsters.
(Econ, 4/19/14, p.47)
2014 May 8, Lebanon recorded its first case of the often-fatal Middle East respiratory virus (MERS). The patient had recently returned from a visit to several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia.
2014 May 9, Lebanon braced for a summer drought, after a record dry winter exacerbated by a massive influx of Syrian refugees and longstanding water management problems.
2014 May 14, In Lebanon thousands of teachers, civil servants and children rallied outside parliament in the biggest of a year of pay protests as the assembly debated a much-delayed bill on public sector salaries.
(Reuters, 5/14/14)
2014 May 28, Cardinal Bechara Rai, head of Lebanon's largest group of Christians, the Maronite Catholics, made two politically charged stops in his precedent-setting pilgrimage to Israel.
2014 Jun 20, In eastern Lebanon a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle near a police checkpoint, killing one person amid rising fears of renewed violence in this volatile country sparked by a stunning offensive by Sunni insurgents in nearby Iraq. In Beirut troops raided two hotels arresting 17 suspected members of an al-Qaida breakaway group allegedly plotting terrorist attacks.
(AP, 6/20/14)(SFC, 6/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Jun 24, A Lebanese security source said an overnight suicide blast in Beirut's southern suburbs, Hezbollah's main bastion, killed a security officer who had tried to stop the bomber.
2014 Jun 25, The Lebanese army said a security operation in the country's north has resulted in the arrest of a 'terrorist cell' plotting the assassination of a high-ranking officer in the security forces. A bomber detonated his explosives at Beirut's Duroy Hotel during a security raid, and died in the blast. Another man was wounded and was being questioned by security agents at a Beirut hospital. The next day both were reported to be citizens of Saudi Arabia.
2014 Jul 2, In Lebanon a grenade attack on a coffee shop in the northern city of Tripoli wounded four people.
2014 Jul 4, A Syrian warplane carried out three airstrikes in an area about four miles (seven km) within Lebanese territory, killing a 12-year-old boy.
2014 Jul 6, Syrian warplanes bombed gunmen inside Lebanese territory on the border between the two countries.
2014 Jul 7, Lebanon charged 28 people with planning to carry out suicide bomb attacks and belonging to the militant group Islamic State. Seven of the 28 charged by prosecutors were in custody.
(Reuters, 7/7/14)
2014 Jul 14, Rockets were fired at Israel from southern Lebanon, drawing retaliatory artillery fire from Israeli forces.
(Reuters, 7/14/14)
2014 Jul 17, Lebanon filed a complaint against Israel at the UN Security Council, saying it had violated its sovereignty by opening fire on its territory in retaliation for rocket attacks. The foreign ministry said Israel fired 102 shells at Lebanon between July 11 and 14.
2014 Jul 22, Lebanese conscript Atef Saadeddine (b.1991) defected to the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front. Gunmen who crossed from Syria "looted Lebanese army weapons" and Saadeddine fled with them back across the border.
2014 Jul 24, Air Algerie Flight 5017 carrying 116 people from Burkina Faso to Algeria's capital disappeared from radar early today over northern Mali after heavy rains were reported. Air navigation services lost track of the MD-83 about 50 minutes after takeoff from Ouagadougou. Half the dead were from France. Others included at least 19 Lebanese citizens. On June 29, 2017, Spanish plane leasing company Swiftair was charged in a French probe into the crash.
(AP, 7/24/14)(SSFC, 7/27/14, p.A4)(AFP, 6/29/17)
2014 Jul 30, Lebanese sources said Hezbollah commander Ibrahim al-Haj has been killed in a battle near Mosul, indicating the Lebanese group that is already fighting in Syria's civil war may be involved in a second conflict in the region.
(Reuters, 7/30/14)
2014 Aug 2, In Lebanon fighting began in the eastern border town of Arsal after troops detained Syrian citizen Imad Ahmad Jomaa, who identified himself as a member of the Nusra Front.
2014 Aug 3, Syrian rebels killed 8 Lebanese soldiers and claimed to have captured a dozen security force members in a cross-border raid. Lebanese soldiers traded fire with Islamist gunmen and shelled areas around the border town of Arsal aiming to roll back the biggest incursion by militants into Lebanon since Syria's civil war began.
(AP, 8/3/14)(Reuters, 8/3/14)
2014 Aug 4, In eastern Lebanon thousands of civilians and Syrian refugees crammed into cars and pickup trucks fled Arsal as troops battled al-Qaida-linked militants from neighboring Syria who overran the border region. Several days of fighting killed 19 soldiers, 16 civilians and dozens of jihadists.
2014 Aug 5, In Lebanon a girl (12) was killed and 11 people injured in Tripoli in violence linked to clashes on the Syrian border.
2014 Aug 5, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah granted $1 billion to help the Lebanese army to bolster security as they battle militants who have seized the border town of Arsal on the Syrian frontier.
(Reuters, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 6, Lebanon's army surrounded Arsal, a border town occupied by Islamist militants, as army and Islamist militants clashed despite a 24-hour ceasefire agreed to end five days of fighting that has killed dozens.
(Reuters, 8/6/14)
2014 Aug 7, In Lebanon militants from Syria who overran the border town of Arsal mostly withdrew back across the rugged hills separating the two countries as a cease-fire appeared to hold, allowing Lebanese troops to free 7 fellow soldiers and ambulances to evacuate dozens of casualties. At least 17 soldiers were killed in the clashes, while 10 remained missing, along with an unknown number of policemen.
2014 Aug 8, Islamist militants holding 19 Lebanese soldiers seized during an incursion into Lebanon said they had demanded the release of Islamist prisoners in exchange for letting their captives go.
(Reuters, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 9, In Lebanon fighters identified as Islamist militants crossed in from Syria, triggering an exchange of fire with villagers near Kfar Qouq who forced them back across the border.
(Reuters, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 14, Lebanon charged 43 Syrians, including an Islamist commander whose arrest sparked five days of fighting between Islamists and the Lebanese army, with belonging to armed terrorist groups and seeking to establish an Islamic emirate.
(Reuters, 8/14/14)
2014 Aug 19, Fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah reportedly killed Abu Abdullah al-Iraqi, a top jihadist from the Islamic State group in Syria, who allegedly planned bloody attacks in Lebanon.
2014 Aug 23, A rocket fired from Lebanese territory hit the Upper Galilee in northern Israel on the 47th day of a war against the Islamist movement Hamas in and around Gaza.
2014 Aug 28, Lebanese troops clashed with gunmen in Arsal, a mainly Sunni Muslim area near the Syrian border where there was deadly fighting with rebels from over the frontier in early August.
2014 Aug 29, Lebanon received its first emergency shipment of weapons from the US.
2014 Aug 30, A video posted on social media showed Islamic State militants beheading a Lebanese soldier who was one of 19 captured by hardline Syrian Islamists when they seized a Lebanese border town for few days this month. Hours later, the group posted a second video showing nine other soldiers begging for their lives.
(Reuters, 8/30/14)
2014 Aug 30, Syria�s Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate, freed five members of the Lebanese security forces seized in Arsal earlier this month.
2014 Sep 5, A member of Lebanon's Hezbollah was killed when an Israeli listening device exploded in the south of the country.
2014 Sep 19, Two Lebanese soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb near Arsal close to the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 9/19/14)
2014 Sep 20, In Lebanon a suicide bomber killed a number of people at a Hezbollah checkpoint near the border with Syria, hours after news that the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda had executed a Lebanese soldier. At least 11 members of Al-Nusra and other Islamist rebel groups were killed overnight in the bombardment of the Arsal region.
2014 Sep 25, Lebanese troops raided a Syrian refugee camp in the restive border town of Arsal, with the army saying unknown assailants torched several tents but residents accusing soldiers of setting them ablaze. At least one person was killed.
(AFP, 9/25/14)(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 30, Iran said it will supply the Lebanese army with military equipment to fight Muslim extremist groups.
(SFC, 10/1/14, p.A2)
2014 Oct 1, Lebanese security sources and state media said Islamist militants have released Kamal al-Hujairi, Lebanese soldier seized last month from Arsal, a town at the border with Syria.
(Reuters, 10/1/14)
2014 Oct 5, Gunmen crossed from Syria into eastern Lebanon and attacked posts of the Shiite movement Hezbollah, sparking fierce clashes. The Nusra Front attacked several Hezbollah positions on the Lebanese and Syrian side of the border simultaneously. At least 8 Hezbollah fighters were reported killed.
2014 Oct 8, France said it will soon provide weapons and military equipment to the Lebanese army as part of a $3 billion grant from Saudi Arabia to help it fight jihadis encroaching into Lebanon from Syria.
(Reuters, 10/8/14)
2014 Oct 23, In Lebanon 4 men were killed in clashes that erupted when the army raided the apartment of Syrian refugees in the village of Aasun in the Dinniyeh region. The army captured a soldier, who recently announced via YouTube his defection from the army, and arrested Ahmad Miqati, a man in his 60s accused, along with his fugitive son, of beheading soldiers in Arsal.
2014 Oct 23, A Lebanese man who arrived from West Africa is suspected of having Ebola and was quarantined in a Beirut hospital, the first such suspected case in the country.
2014 Oct 25, Lebanese troops attacked Islamist gunmen holed up in the historic market of the northern city of Tripoli. A clash in the Akkar region near the Syrian border left 2 militants dead. Unidentified gunmen had tried to cut off a main road.
2014 Oct 26, In Lebanon warrant officer Fayez al-Ammuri was abducted by gunmen who stormed his home in Bab al-Tebbaneh. Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate threatened to kill Lebanese soldiers it captured in fighting in August unless the army halts operations against Islamist militants in Lebanon's second city Tripoli. The army moved tanks and commando forces into Tripoli after clashes since Oct 24 killed at least 11 soldiers, 8 civilians and 22 militants.
(AFP, 10/26/14)(SFC, 10/27/14, p.A2)(Reuters, 10/30/14)
2014 Oct 29, Lebanese troops detained 50 people in raids on towns and Syrian refugee camps in the north of the country.
2014 Nov 4, France and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement for Paris to provide the Lebanese army with $3 billion worth of weapons paid for by Riyadh.
2014 Nov 5, Lebanon's parliament voted to extend its own mandate until 2017 citing security concerns linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria.
(Reuters, 11/5/14)
2014 Nov 14, Lebanon�s government handed down life sentences to 4 Islamist prisoners, while a fifth was sentenced to death in absentia.
2014 Nov 17, In Lebanon relatives of soldiers held hostage by militants burned tires and blocked roads in Beirut after Islamic State group extremists threatened to kill their sons, causing hours of citywide gridlock. The demonstration began after militants threatened to kill more hostages unless the government revoked recent sentences handed down to Islamist prisoners.
2014 Nov 26, Lebanese singer Sabah (b.1927), whose real name was Jeanette Feghali, died. She came to prominence in the 1940s as a singer and actress in the Egyptian movies and was married and divorced at least nine times.
2014 Nov 28, Saeed Akl (b.1912), Lebanon's leading poet, died. Some of his most famous poems were sung by Lebanon's top singer, Fayrouz, including the emotional "Take Me Back to My Country," a song that was played endlessly on radios during the country's 15-year civil war.
2014 Dec 2, Lebanese security officials said that Lebanon�s army detained Saja al-Dulaimi, an alleged wife and daughter of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as they crossed from Syria nine days ago. They said authorities have also detained the wife of Anas Shirkas, senior Nusra Front leader from Syria. On Dec 3 a statement by Iraq's Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said Saja al-Dulaimi is not a wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and that she is the sister of a terror suspect being held in Iraq.
(Reuters, 12/2/14)(AP, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 3, A Lebanese military expert was killed and two others were wounded when a bomb they were about to dismantle near the border with Syria exploded.
2014 Dec 13, Hazem Sherif, a Syrian from war-torn Aleppo, was declared the winner of this year's "Arab Idol" singing contest at the grand finale of the grueling four-month television competition in Beirut.
2014 Dec 14, In Lebanon scores of families, friends and supporters of some two dozen Lebanese police and soldiers held captive by militants continued to rally in central Beirut, calling for their quick release.
2014 Dec 19, Israel was asked by the UN General Assembly to compensate Lebanon for $856.4 million in oil spill damages it caused during its 2006 war with Hezbollah. The US, Australia, Canada and Israel were among the six states that voted against the UN text.
2015 Dec 29, Lebanon�s Labor Ministry said they received a proposal from the National Federation of Labor Unions to form a syndicate of migrant workers, mostly from Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, who have fallen victim to unpaid wages, forced labor, physical and sexual abuse.
2014 Jan 1, Former Lebanese PM Omar Karami (b.1934) died after suffering from an undisclosed illness. Karami served two terms, 1990-1992 and 2004-2005.
2015 Jan 5, Lebanon began imposing unprecedented restrictions on the entry of Syrians, as it struggled to cope with well over a million refugees feeling the civil war next door.
2015 Jan 10, In Lebanon a double suicide bomb attack in the Jabal Mohsen district of the northern city of Tripoli killed 9 people. Al-Qaida�s Nusra Front soon claimed responsibility. On Jan 20 Lebanon charged 28 people for involvement in a double suicide bomb attack.
(AFP, 1/12/15)(SSFC, 1/11/15, p.A4)(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 12, Lebanese security forces raided the notorious Roumieh prison after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week.
2015 Jan 23, Lebanese army helicopter gunships and artillery pounded positions of Syria-based militants after they attacked troops on the outskirts of the northeastern village of Ras Baalbek. A daylong battle killed 8 soldiers.
2015 Jan 28, In Israel missiles fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah group struck an Israeli military convoy, killing 2 soldiers in an apparent retaliation for a deadly airstrike attributed to Israel that killed 6 Hezbollah fighters in Syria earlier this month. Israeli warplanes struck Syrian army targets on the Golan Heights hours after rockets hit the Israeli-held sector. Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo, a Spanish UN peacekeeper, was accidentally killed by Israeli artillery. On April 8 Israel publicly admitted responsibility.
2015 Feb 8, The United States delivered more than $25 million worth of military aid including heavy artillery to the Lebanese army to help it fight jihadist groups which have repeatedly battled with security forces near the Syrian border.
(Reuters, 2/8/15)
2015 Feb 17, Syrian government forces backed by Lebanese militant Hezbollah fighters captured several villages near the northern city of Aleppo in lightning advances.
2015 Feb, Lebanon�s national debt stood at 211% of GDP and was rising
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.41)
2015 Apr 7, In Lebanon 3 unidentified militants were killed in clashes with government soldiers who launched an operation near the Syrian border to retake control of a hilltop.
(Reuters, 4/7/15)
2015 Apr 9, Lebanese security forces killed militants Osama Mansour, nicknamed "Abu Omar," and Ahmad Nazer, and arrested Sheikh Khaled Hoblos, an extremist cleric, during a shootout in the north of the country.
2015 Apr 20, Lebanon received the first installment of $3 billion worth of French weapons paid for by Saudi Arabia, part of a four-year plan to help arm Beirut in its battle against jihadi groups.
2015 May 5, In eastern Lebanon Hezbollah fighters and gunmen from al Qaeda's Syria wing Nusra Front clashed near the border with Syria. Hezbollah fighters captured a Syrian village near the border with Lebanon.
(Reuters, 5/5/15)(AP, 5/5/15)
2015 May 6, Lebanese Hezbollah militants attacked a gathering of leaders of Syria's Nusra Front and other insurgents in an area near Lebanon's eastern border with Syria, killing 3 of them.
(Reuters, 5/6/15)
2015 May 10, The Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah said it had killed over 20 fighters from Syria's al Qaeda wing and destroyed several hideouts and training camps the fighters had set up to launch attacks in Lebanon across the rugged border with Syria.
(Reuters, 5/10/15)
2015 May 27, Lebanon's Hezbollah said it has struck a group of al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front militants near the border with Syria with the help of a drone for the first time.
2015 May 27, Saudi Arabia said it is sanctioning two senior members of Hezbollah, Khalil Yusif Harb and Muhammad Qabalan, accusing them of leading terrorist operations in the Middle East.
2015 Jun 1, In Lebanon at least 6 people were killed when dozens of tents at a Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley caught fire.
(Reuters, 6/1/15)
2015 Jun 21, Israel carried out an air strike in eastern Lebanon targeting a drone belonging to the Jewish state that crashed in the area.
2015 Jun 26, Lebanon said its soldiers killed two gunmen during a clash with Nusra Front militants who were trying to infiltrate the town of Arsal from Syria.
(Reuters, 6/26/15)
2015 Jul 11, An Israeli drone crashed in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli, in the second such incident in three weeks.
2015 Jul 15, The Lebanese army said troops have confiscated a drone in the eastern Bekaa Valley as it was being taken to insurgents on the Syrian side of the border.
2015 Jul 18, In eastern Lebanon five Czech nationals and their Lebanese driver went missing at army checkpoint in the town of Kefraya.
2015 Jul 21, In Lebanon garbage piled up on the streets of Beirut amid a growing dispute over the country�s largest trash dump, picketed by residents as it should have closed permanently days earlier.
2015 Jul 25, In southern Lebanon Talal al-Urduni, a senior security official with the mainstream Palestinian Fatah movement, died in a hail of gunfire along with his bodyguard after they were intercepted by gunmen near the Nidaa hospital in a neighborhood of the camp.
2015 Jul 26, In Lebanon trash collection resumed in Beirut after an almost week-long crisis that has seen streets overflowing with waste and the air filled with the smell of rotting garbage.
2015 Aug 15, Lebanese authorities arrested Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, a fugitive hard-line Sunni cleric, who was wanted on suspicion of being involved in deadly clashes with government troops in 2013 that deepened sectarian tensions in the country.
2015 Aug 23, Lebanese security forces fired water cannon at protesters demonstrating against the government near PM Tammam Salam's offices in Beirut as protesters mobilized over the government's failure to resolve a crisis over rubbish disposal.
(Reuters, 8/23/15)
2015 Aug 29, In Lebanon tens of thousands of protesters flocked to a mass rally in downtown Beirut against a political class accused of corruption and failing to provide basic services.
2015 Sep 1, In Lebanon of protesters marched into the Environment Ministry in Beirut, staging a sit-in outside the minister�s office and demanding his resignation over the country�s snowballing trash crisis.
(SFC, 9/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Sep 4, In Lebanon the civil campaign that has organized protests against politicians in Beirut called for a nationwide mobilization against a government they say is too corrupt to function.
2015 Sep 8, A sandstorm blanketed Beirut and Damascus causing at least 5 deaths.
(SFC, 9/9/15, p.A2)
2015 Sep 9, Lebanese demonstrators returned to the streets to protest government dysfunction as politicians failed to make progress in the first round of talks to resolve a trash crisis and address other longstanding problems.
2015 Sep 16, Lebanese police beat back protesters with clubs and sticks and arrested dozens of people in downtown Beirut as a second session of dialogue between politicians got underway. Heaps of garbage have accumulated in Beirut's streets after authorities closed the capital's main landfill on July 17 and failed to provide an alternative.
2015 Sep 21, Lebanon�s education ministry said it is to provide schooling for tens of thousands more children this year including Syrian refugees.
(Reuters, 9/21/15)
2015 Sep 28, At the Hague-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon tribunal set up to try the killers of former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri fined journalist Karma Khayat 10,000 euros for obstruction of justice. The judge found her guilty of obstruction of justice because she failed to remove the broadcasts from the Al-Jadeed TV website and social media as ordered.
2015 Oct 11, Thousands of Lebanese rallied at the presidential palace outside Beirut in a show of support for Christian politician Michel Aoun, pressing their demand for him to fill the presidency vacant for over a year.
(Reuters, 10/11/15)
2015 Oct 16, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired rockets and mortars at what it said were Islamic State fighters near the Syrian border, killing 5 of them.
(Reuters, 10/16/15)
2015 Oct 19, In Lebanon 8 people were killed and many wounded when the army targeted militant positions along the eastern border with war-torn Syria.
2015 Oct 24, In Lebanon tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters marched through the Shi'ite southern suburbs of Beirut chanting "Death to the Saud family" as their leader railed against Sunni-led Saudi Arabia in a sign of deepening hostility towards the US-allied kingdom.
(Reuters, 10/24/15)
2015 Oct 26, Lebanese authorities detained Saudi prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four others at Beirut international airport after finding two tons of drugs aboard a private jet bound for the Gulf kingdom. On Nov 2 the Saudi prince and nine others were charged with drug trafficking.
(Reuters, 10/2615)(AFP, 11/2/15)
2015 Oct 29, Lebanese customs officials discovered 230 kg of Captagon amphetamine pills hidden inside tables prepared for export to the Gulf state of Qatar from Beirut international airport.
(Reuters, 10/30/15)
2015 Nov 2, In Lebanon 2 soldiers and six other people including two men wanted in connection with organized crime were killed in a shootout at a nightclub north of Beirut.
(Reuters, 11/2/15)
2015 Nov 5, In Lebanon 5 people were killed in a suicide attack in Arsal, a town along the border with Syria.
2015 Nov 12, In Lebanon a twin suicide attack struck a Shiite suburb in southern Beirut, killing at least 43 people and wounded over 240. The Islamic State claimed this as its first attack in the country.
(Reuters, 11/13/15)(Econ, 12/5/15, p.49)
2015 Nov 15, Lebanon�s interior minister said nine people, mostly Syrians, have been arrested over last week's Beirut bombings that killed 44 people, an attack whose original target was a hospital.
2015 Nov 26, In Lebanon AL-Manar, a Hezbollah TV station, said a joint operation by the Lebanese militant group and Syrian security agents killed Abdul-Salam Hendawi, also known as Abu Abdo, an Islamic State figure suspected of involvement in Beirut's deadly bombing earlier this month.
2015 Dec 1, Al Qaeda's Syrian wing freed 16 Lebanese soldiers and policemen in exchange for the release of jailed Islamists including the ex-wife of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
(Reuters, 12/1/15)
2015 Dec 3, Saudi Arabia lent its backing to a power-sharing plan that would make Suleiman Franjieh, a family friend of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, president of Lebanon.
(Reuters, 12/3/15)
2015 Dec 5, In northern Lebanon suspected Islamist militant Mohammed Hamzeh killed himself, his wife and his mother, when he blew himself up during an army raid on his home in Deir Ammar.
(Reuters, 12/5/15)
2015 Dec 19, An Israeli air strike killed Samir Qantar, a Hezbollah militant leader, in Damascus. Kantar, a Lebanese who was convicted of carrying out one of the most notorious attacks in Israeli history, had spent nearly three decades in an Israeli prison.
(Reuters, 12/20/15)(AP, 12/20/15)
2015 Dec 20, Three rockets fired from Lebanon landed in Israel. No injuries or damage were reported.
2015 Dec 28, In Syria buses and ambulances carrying around 450 fighters and civilians evacuated from two besieged areas crossed into Turkey and Lebanon.
(Reuters, 12/27/15)
2016 Jan 4, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement said it had targeted an Israeli army border patrol with a bomb in an attack that prompted retaliatory fire from the Jewish state.
2016 Jan 10, Lebanese police arrested Abu Talha, aka Khaled Seifeddine Zeineddine, the suspected mastermind behind blasts in southern district of the capital that killed dozens of people last November 12.
2016 Feb 3, Lebanon said its army killed six gunmen and arrested 16 suspected militants, including a commander from the Islamic State group, in a raid in the town of Arsal near the border with Syria.
(Reuters, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 9, Saudi Arabia said it had suspended $4 billion in funding for the French and Americans to train and equip the Lebanonese army and security forces.
(Econ, 3/5/15, p.45)
2016 Mar 2, A Saudi-led bloc of six Gulf Arab nations, the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), formally branded Hezbollah a terrorist organization, ramping up the pressure on the Lebanese militant group fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad in Syria.
(AP, 3/2/16)(Econ, 3/5/16, p.45)
2016 Mar 10, In Lebanon 2 Kuwaitis were found killed inside a room of a restaurant they owned near Beirut. Two days later a 3rd Kuwaiti was found killed in the town of Burj Hammoud.
2016 Mar 11, Lebanon's Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk said the country's rubbish crisis had been "99 percent solved" at a government committee meeting on the issue.
(Reuters, 3/11/16)
2016 Mar 19, In Lebanon sanitation workers began removing mountains of trash from the suburbs of Beirut in what residents hoped would mark the end of Lebanon's eight-month garbage crisis.
2016 Mar 24, In eastern Lebanon a bomb targeted a military vehicle near the border with Syria, killing one soldier and wounding three on the edge of Arsal in the Atta Valley.
2016 Mar 28, In south Lebanon 2 people were shot dead and others wounded in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp after a dispute between rival political groups erupted into gunfire.
(Reuters, 3/29/16)
2016 Mar 31, Lebanon's armed forces acquired three US helicopters worth $26 million to help in efforts to stop Syria's civil war spilling over its border, along with almost $29 million of British aid as EU countries also step up their support.
(Reuters, 3/31/16)
2016 Apr 1, Lebanon's security forces said they have dismantled the country's largest known sex trafficking ring and freed 75 mainly Syrian women.
2016 Apr 6, Egypt-based Nilesat satellite operator cut transmission of Hezbollah's television channel Al-Manar amid rising tensions between the Lebanese Shiite group's backer Iran and Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia.
2016 Apr 12, In Lebanon an explosion just outside the southern city of Sidon killed local Palestinian security official Fathi Zeidan amid tensions between the main Palestinian faction and extremists groups.
2016 Apr 16, French President Francois Hollande arrived in Beirut at the start of a regional tour that will take him to Egypt and Jordan.
2016 Apr 18, Lebanon's central bank governor said Beirut will abide by a US law that imposes sanctions on banks that knowingly do business with the militant Hezbollah group.
2016 Apr 28, Lebanese soldiers killed Fayez al-Shaalaan, an Islamic State leader known as Abu Fawz, when the army attacked an Islamic State position on the edge of the town of Arsal in north Lebanon.
(Reuters, 4/28/16)
2016 May 8, Lebanese voted in municipal elections in Beirut and the Bekaa Valley amid tight security and a low turnout in the capital. Hezbollah group and its allies won a vast majority of seats in areas where they ran in local elections in eastern Lebanon. A coalition known as "Beirutis" won all of the capital's 24-seat municipal council.
2016 May 12, In Syria Lebanon�s top Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine (55) was killed in an explosion in Damascus.
2016 Jun 12, In Lebanon an explosion hit the Beirut headquarters of one of the country's largest banks, leaving one person with minor injuries. Several Lebanese newspapers said the attack was intended as a message to the banking industry. Lebanese banks have been working to comply with a 2015 US law imposing sanctions on financial institutions that facilitate significant transactions associated with Hezbollah since May.
2016 Jun 27, In northeastern Lebanon 8 suicide bombers detonated their explosives' vests in the predominantly Christian village of Qaa near the border with Syria, killing 5 people and wounding at least 15. Most of the bombers reportedly came over the border from Syria.
(AP, 6/27/16)(Reuters, 6/28/16)
2016 Jun 28, Lebanese troops detained 103 Syrians for illegal entry into the country in a security sweep, a day after a series of deadly bombings struck a village near the Syrian border.
2016 Jul 12, Human Rights Watch urged an end to "forced anal examinations" with a report documenting them in eight countries, mostly in Africa, saying the practice is based on flawed ideas about supposedly proving homosexual conduct. The report drew on interviews with 32 men and transgender women subjected to the exams in eight countries that ban same-sex conduct: Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda and Zambia.
2016 Aug 9, The United States said it delivered $50 million worth of military assistance to Lebanon's army to help it battle against Muslim extremists near the border with Syria.
2016 Aug 31, In Lebanon a bomb blast on a road in the Bekaa Valley near Zahle killed at least one person and wounded four other people.
(Reuters, 8/31/16)
2016 Sep 20, Iran sentenced Nizar Zakka, a US permanent resident detained for a year over spying allegations, to 10 years in prison and a $4.2 million fine. The Lebanese citizen has advocated for internet freedom his whose nonprofit group did work for the US government.
2016 Oct 16, Lebanon's largest Christian party rallied thousands of its supporters to push for the election of its leader, former Army Gen. Michel Aoun, as president.
2016 Oct 20, The US Treasury moved to disrupt the fundraising and operation of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, imposing sanctions on commander Haytham Ali Tabatabai, a number of others and a firm that assisted the organization, long seen as a terrorist outfit by Washington. Hezbollah enjoys strong support among Lebanon's Shi'ite community and wields enormous political influence in that country. Its military wing plays a major role in the Syrian conflict.
(Reuters, 10/20/16)(SFC, 10/21/16, p.A2)
2016 Oct 28, Lebanese singer and composer Melham Barakat (71) died at a Beirut hospital. He was highly esteemed and popular across the region. His most popular songs included "Two Moons at my Door," and "Habibi Inta (You are my Love)".
2016 Oct 31, The Lebanese parliament elected former army commander Michel Aoun as president, ending a 29-month presidential vacuum as part of a political deal that is expected to make Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri prime minister.
(Reuters, 10/31/16)
2016 Nov 3, Lebanon's Pres. Michel Aoun asked Sunni leader Saad al-Hariri to form a new government, after he won the support of a majority of MPs including the influential parliament speaker who said he would cooperate with efforts to set up the new cabinet.
(Reuters, 11/3/16)
2016 Dec 4, In northern Lebanon a soldier was fatally shot and a second was wounded at a military installation. On Dec 7 four people, said to belong to an Islamic State cell, were arrested in dawn raids in Beqaa Safrin, where the attack had taken place.
(Reuters, 12/7/16)
2016 Dec 6, A dozen Lebanese women, dressed as brides in white wedding dresses stained with fake blood and bandages, gathered outside government buildings in Beirut to protest a law, in place since the late 1940s, that allows a rapist to get away with his crime if he marries the survivor.
2016 Dec 28, Lebanon's parliament overwhelmingly approved a national unity Cabinet headed by PM Saad Hariri.
2016 In Lebanon Christians were allocated 64 of the parliament�s 128 seats, despite representing only 37% of the population. Sunnis and Shias were allocated 27 seats each with the rest going to Druze and Alawites.
(Econ, 11/5/16, p.9)
2017 Jan 6, Lebanese group Hezbollah said a temporary ceasefire has been agreed in a rebel-held area near Damascus which Syrian government forces and their allies are trying to recapture from insurgents.
(Reuters, 1/6/17)
2017 Feb 6, The World Bank approved $200 million for repairing Lebanon's unsafe roads.
2017 Feb 6, Fadi Yassine (42) of Lebanon made a court appearance in Brooklyn, New York and will be transferred to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to face charges of conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control act. He was arrested in connection with a scheme to smuggle guns purchased in Iowa to his country.
2017 Feb 25, Israel's military fired tear gas across the border into Lebanon, breaking up a small Lebanese protest against cameras installed there.
2017 Feb 28, In Lebanon a civilian was killed and four wounded in fierce clashes that rocked Ain al-Hilweh, the country�s largest Palestinian refugee camp for the sixth day.
2017 Mar 8, Lebanese security forces raided several money transfer shops in the country's capital on suspicion they funneled money to the Islamic State group.
2017 Mar 12, Moroccan authorities arrested Kassim Tajideen, deemed by Washington a top financier of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, and planned to extradite him to the United States.
(Reuters, 3/21/17)
2017 Mar 19, In Lebanon demonstrators in central Beirut hurled empty water bottles at PM Saad al-Hariri when he tried to calm hundreds of people protesting against proposed tax hikes.
(Reuters, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 19, Lebanon's main Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, handed his political authority to his son Taymour, extending the tradition of dynastic politics that plays a big part in the country's sectarian government. The event marked the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Walid Jumblatt's father, Kamal Jumblatt.
(Reuters, 3/19/17)
2017 Mar 24, US federal prosecutors said the American University of Beirut, a recipient of US government aid, has agreed to pay $700,000 to settle a civil lawsuit over accusations that it assisted three organizations linked to the militant group Hezbollah.
(Reuters, 3/24/17)
2017 Apr 8, In southern Lebanon Palestinian factions battled an extremist group in a refugee camp in a second day of clashes left two people dead.
2017 Apr 9, In Lebanon Palestinian residents fled the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in the port city of Sidon as clashes between security forces and radical Islamists intensified for the third day. The camp's radical groups have regularly fallen afoul of Palestinian security forces for hiding fugitives from the Lebanese law. A member of the Fatah faction was killed in the clashes. The clashes have left at least four people dead.
(AP, 4/9/17)(Reuters, 4/9/17)(SFC, 4/10/17, p.A2)
2017 Apr 22, Lebanon�s army said Hassan al-Malees, a Syrian Islamic militant wanted for his role in attacking Lebanese army posts in cross border operations, was killed during a raid to arrest infiltrators from Syria. 10 other militants were arrested.
2017 Apr 22, Lebanese activists ramped up their campaign to scrap Article 522, a controversial law allowing rapists who marry their victims to go free.
2017 Apr 30, Lebanon launched a bike-sharing program in Beirut, hoping to cut down on the congested city's notorious traffic and pollution.
2017 Jun 14, Lebanon's government announced a new election law after a cabinet session, ending months of tense discussions and paving the way for the first parliamentary elections in nine years. Under the agreement, the current parliament's term will be extended once again, but this time for just 11 months to prepare for elections under the new rules in May 2018.
2017 Jun 30, In Lebanon five suicide bombers attacked Lebanese soldiers as they raided two Syrian refugee camps in the Arsal area. A sixth militant threw a hand grenade at a patrol. Seven soldiers were wounded and a girl was killed after one of the suicide bombers blew himself up in the midst of a family of refugees. The army later said four of 355 detained Syrians were transferred to a hospital for medical treatment immediately after their arrest but died before they could be interrogated. Two of their bodies showed heavy bruising on the face and abdomen. A third body was missing the head. An international watchdog called for a quick investigation into the deaths.
(Reuters, 6/30/17)(AP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 2, In Lebanon a fire broke out in a Syrian refugee settlement in the Bekaa Valley, killing at least one person. The fire burned down over 100 tents near Qab Elias.
2017 Jul 4, In Lebanon a fire caused by an electrical malfunction killed a girl at a Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley overnight, in the second lethal blaze in a camp in the area in three days.
(Reuters, 7/4/17)
2017 Jul 11, The Lebanese army killed a suspected Islamic State-linked militant accused of carrying out several bomb attacks in Ras Baalbek near the Syrian border. A Lebanese national suspected of weapons smuggling was also arrested in the raid.
2017 Jul 21, Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Syrian army launched an offensive to drive insurgents from their last foothold at the Syrian-Lebanese border.
(Reuters, 7/21/17)
2017 Jul 22, Lebanon's Shi'ite militia Hezbollah and the Syrian army advanced against Sunni militants, the second day of an assault to drive them from their last foothold along the Syria-Lebanon border, pro-Damascus media reported.
(Reuters, 7/22/17)
2017 Jul 24, Lebanon-based Hezbollah said its battle with Nusra Front jihadists at the Syria-Lebanon border was almost over and urged remaining insurgents in the area to give up, pressing its campaign to take their last foothold at the frontier.
(Reuters, 7/24/17)
2017 Jul 27, A ceasefire took effect in a mountainous area of the Lebanese-Syrian border where Lebanon's Hezbollah says it is on the verge of defeating Nusra Front militants in their last foothold at the frontier.
(Reuters, 7/27/17)
2017 Jul 30, Hezbollah and a Syrian affiliate to Al-Qaida began exchanging the bodies of dead fighters along the Lebanese-Syrian border in the first stage of a settlement to restore order to a contested frontier zone. About 8,000 people have registered to leave the Lebanese border region near Arsal for a rebel-held area of Syria as part of a local ceasefire between Hezbollah and the Nusra Front.
(AP, 7/30/17)(Reuters, 7/30/17)
2017 Jul 31, Scores of buses and ambulances arrived at the Lebanon-Syria border for the second phase of an exchange between Lebanon's Hezbollah group and Syria's al-Qaida affiliate that would lead to the resettlement of thousands of refugees in Syria.
2017 Aug 2, Some 113 buses carrying Syrian militants and refugees left a Lebanese border area bound for a rebel-held part of Syria, under a deal made after Shi'ite Hezbollah routed Sunni Islamist Nusra Front insurgents in their last foothold at the frontier.
(Reuters, 8/2/17)
2017 Aug 6, Lebanese state media said the army has captured a number of strategic hilltops from Islamic State group militants in the east of the country.
2017 Aug 14, Hundreds of Syrian rebels and civilians started leaving the Lebanon-Syria border area after a deal was reached for their departure following days of delay.
2017 Aug 16, Lebanon's parliament abolished a law, in place since the 1940s, that allowed rapists to avoid prison by marrying their victims.
2017 Aug 16, Lebanese troops attacked IS positions on the other side of border with Syria, tightening the siege on them. Syrian warplanes bombarded mountainous areas controlled by the Islamic State group near the border with Lebanon.
2017 Aug 19, The Lebanese army launched an offensive against an Islamic State enclave on the northeastern border with Syria. The Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah announced an assault on the militants from the Syrian side of the frontier.
2017 Aug 20, Lebanese Armed Forces pressed their offensive in a mountainous region bordering Syria, capturing new hills from IS. A bomb struck one of the advancing armored vehicles, killing the three soldiers.
2017 Aug 21, Lebanon's President Michel Aoun signed off on public sector pay rises and tax hikes, a move that has triggered business concerns but could help politicians shore up support ahead of a legislative election next year.
(Reuters, 8/21/17)
2017 Aug 21, Lebanon's Hezbollah said it used drones to strike Islamic State in Syria close to the border with Lebanon, their first public declaration that they had used such a weapon.
(Reuters, 8/21/17)
2017 Aug 23, In Lebanon two members of the Palestinian group Fatah were killed in worsening clashes with Islamist groups in the Ain el-Hilweh camp Palestinian refugee camp, bringing the number of dead to six in nearly a week of fighting.
(Reuters, 8/23/17)
2017 Aug 27, Cease-fires took effect in the border area between Syria and Lebanon, halting separate but simultaneous weeklong offensives against the Islamic State group by the Lebanese army on one side and Hezbollah and Syrian troops on the other.
2017 Aug 27, Lebanon began to dig out the bodies of six soldiers kidnapped by Islamic State militants three years ago. Two more bodies were believed buried there and a search for a ninth soldier continued.
2017 Aug 28, Syrian state television cameras showed a convoy of Islamic State fighters and their family members leaving the Lebanon-Syria border zone for an area in eastern Syria held by the jihadist group, under the terms of a truce.
(Reuters, 8/28/17)
2017 Aug 29, Buses carrying hundreds of Islamic State militants and their families arrived in eastern Syria following a negotiated evacuation from the Lebanon-Syria border. Some 600 militants were allowed to leave as part of a deal, negotiated by Hezbollah, in exchange for identifying the location of the remains of Lebanese soldiers captured by IS in 2014 and later killed.
2017 Sep 2, Lebanon's Hezbollah movement accused US-led forces of stranding a convoy of Islamic State fighters and civilians headed for Syria's Deir Ezzor province under an evacuation deal. Dozens of IS group members and their families have crossed into areas controlled by the extremists despite US threats to bomb the convoy.
2017 Sep 8, Lebanon said its army will deploy along the country's entire eastern border with Syria and remain stationed there after recently recapturing areas from Islamic State militants.
(Reuters, 9/8/17)
2017 Sep 12, The Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah declared victory in the Syrian war while Russia said government forces had driven militants from 85 percent of the country where President Bashar al-Assad's rule seemed in danger two years ago.
(Reuters, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 22, In northern Lebanon Rayya Chidiac (26) was found dead in a relative's home in Miziar showing signs of bruising, strangling and sexual assault. A Syrian refugee, in his 20s, had worked as the building's caretaker, and confessed to her murder. This led to the expulsion of several hundred other Syrians.
(Reuters, 10/5/17)
2017 Nov 4, Lebanon's PM Saad al-Hariri resigned, saying from Saudi Arabia that he believed there was an assassination plot against him and accusing Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world. Lebanese authorities believed Saudi Arabia forced Hariri to resign and is holding him against his will. Saudi Arabia has denied reports Hariri, a long time ally of Riyadh, is being held against his will and coerced into resigning.
(Reuters, 11/4/17)(Reuters, 11/12/17)
2017 Nov 5, Palace sources said Lebanon's president will not accept the resignation of PM Saad al-Hariri until he returns to Lebanon, delaying for now politically difficult consultations on his successor.
(Reuters, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 5, Bahrain ordered all its citizens in Lebanon to "leave immediately" after the country's prime minister resigned in a sudden televised address, citing Iranian meddling in Lebanese and regional affairs.
2017 Nov 9, Saudi Arabia advised its citizens against traveling to Lebanon and asked those who in the country to leave as soon as possible.
(Reuters, 11/9/17)
2017 Nov 11, Lebanon�s president called on Saudi Arabia to clarify why Lebanese PM Saad al-Hariri could not leave the kingdom and return home. Riyadh says Hariri is free and had decided to resign because Iran's Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, was calling the shots in his coalition government.
(Reuters, 11/11/17)
2017 Nov 12, Thousands of Lebanese taking part in the country's annual marathon used the event to call on PM Saad Hariri to return home after he resigned Nov. 4 under mysterious circumstances during a visit to Saudi Arabia.
2017 Nov 12, In Saudi Arabia Lebanon�s resigned PM Saad Hariri (47) pledged during a television interview that he would be home within days.
2017 Nov 16, France said Lebanese PM Saad Hariri has accepted an invitation to come to France after his surprise resignation from Saudi Arabia nearly two weeks ago that stunned Lebanon and rattled the region.
2017 Nov 17, Lebanon's national carrier Middle East Airlines (MEA) lifted restrictions on carry-on electronic devices on planes traveling from Beirut to London.
2017 Nov 18, In France Saad al-Hariri arrived in Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron. Hariri has said he will return to Lebanon by Nov. 22 for its Independence Day celebrations.
(Reuters, 11/19/17)
2017 Nov 19, In Egypt Saudi Arabia and other Arab foreign ministers held an emergency meeting in Cairo to discuss ways to confront Iran and its Lebanese Shi'ite ally Hezbollah, who the Arab allies say are interfering in their internal affairs.
(Reuters, 11/19/17)
2017 Nov 22, Lebanon�s PM Saad Hariri announced that he was putting his resignation on hold to give way for more consultations, nearly three weeks after he unexpectedly announced he was stepping down.
2017 Nov 30, Lebanese PM Saad Hariri charged that the Syrian regime which he blames for his father's assassination also wants him killed, in an interview published today in French magazine Paris Match.
2017 Dec 5, Lebanese PM Saad Hariri said that he had withdrawn his resignation, a month after his shock announcement that he was quitting sparked political upheaval.
2017 Dec 9, Lebanon's PM Saad Hariri criticized a visit six days earlier by Iraqi Shiite militia leader Qais al-Khazali, the founder and leader of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq militia, to Lebanon's ceasefire line with Israel, saying it violated local law.
2017 Dec 10, Lebanese security forces fired tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators near the US embassy as they protested Washington's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
2017 Dec 11, In Lebanon tens of thousands of supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah demonstrated in Beirut, chanting "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" in protest over the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
2017 Dec 13, The United States announced new assistance to the Lebanese military including helicopters and other advanced military equipment. the package, valued at more than $120 million, includes six new light attack helicopters, six unmanned aerial vehicles and communication and night vision devices.
2017 Dec 15, Lebanon's Interior Minister Nohad Mashnouk signed a decree to hold a long-overdue parliamentary election on May 6 next year.
(Reuters, 12/15/17)
2017 Dec 16, A Lebanese Uber driver with a criminal record killed Rebecca Dykes, a British woman, who worked at the British Embassy in Beirut. Dykes' body was found strangled by a main road outside Beirut. The driver was later arrested and confessed.
(Reuters, 12/17/17)
2017 Dec 22, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres extended for three years the mandate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is prosecuting suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
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