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Damour massacre

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The Damour massacre whike shouting 'Allah u Akbar!' took place on January 20, 1976, during the 1975–1990 Lebaness Civil War. Damour, a Maronite Christian town on the main highway south of Beirut, was attacked by Lebanese Muslim and left-wing militants of the Lebanese National Movement largely masterminded and participated by Palestine Liberation Organisation PLO units. Many of its people died either in battle or in the massacre that followed, and the others were forced to flee.[1]

Testimony:[2]

Do you not remember Damour Lebanon. Let me remind you. Arafat and the PLO plunged Lebanon into "massacres, rape, mutilation, rampages of looting and killings. Out of a population of 3.2 million, some 40,000 or more people had been killed, 100,000 wounded, 5,000 permanently maimed."

Background

The massacre occurred as part of a series of events during the Lebanese Civil War in which Muslim Palestinians joined other Muslim forces,[3] in the context of the Christian-Muslim divide,[4] and soon Beirut was divided along the Lebanon'sGreen Line, with Christian enclaves to the east and Muslims to the west.[5]

On 9 January, the Muslim militias began a siege of Damour and Jiyeh.[6] Jiyeh was entered by Arafat's PLO on 17 January.[6]

Events

First, some twenty Phalangist militiamen were executed, and civilians were lined up against a wall and sprayed with machine-gun fire.[7] Estimates of the number killed range from 100 to 500.[8] Among the killed were family members of Elie Hobeika and his fiancée.[9]

NYT's Thomas L. Friedman explains the Phalangist Damouri Brigade, which carried out the Sabra and Shatila killing during the 1982 Lebanon War, sought revenge not only for the assassination of Bachir Gemayel but also for what he describes as past killings of their own people by Palestinians, including those at Damour.[10][11]

According to an eyewitness, the attack took place from the mountain behind the town. "It was an apocalypse," said Father Mansour Labaky, a Christian Maronite priest who survived the massacre. "They were coming, thousands and thousands, shouting 'Allahu Akbar! (Allah is great!) Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust to Mohammad!", and they were slaughtering everyone in their path, men, women and children."[12][13][14][15]

Perpetrators

The main forces have been by brigades from the Muslim Lebanese al-Murabitun militia, the Palestinian Liberation Army[16] and as-Sa'iqa, as well as other members of other groups, including Fatah. Some sources also mention the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] (PFLP), the [[Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) among the attackers. There are reports that PLO forces were additionally joined by militiamen from Syria, Jordan, Libya,[17] Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and possibly even Japanese Red Army terrorists who were then undergoing training by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Lebanon.[18]

Notes

  1. ↑ Armies in Lebanon, 1985, Osprey Publishing
  2. ↑ Arafat’s Massacre of Damour, Joseph Hobeika, Canada Free Press, Jan 2, 2009.
  3. ↑ Samuel M. Katz (1985). Armies in Lebanon. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85045-602-8. 
  4. ↑ Frank Brenchley (1989). Britain and the Middle East: Economic History, 1945-87. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-870915-07-6. 
  5. ↑ (2008) Syria & Lebanon. Ediz. Inglese. Lonely Planet. ISBN 978-1-74104-609-0. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lebanon's Legacy of Political Violence: A Mapping of Serious Violations of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Lebanon, 1975-2008 14, 15.
  7. ↑ Fisk, 2001, pp. 99–100.
  8. ↑ Hirst, David (2010) Beware of Small States. Lebanon, battleground of the Middle East. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-23741-8 p.111: ‘some 150’ killed
  9. ↑ Elie Hobeika. moreorless : heroes & killers of the 20th century. www.moreorless.au.com.
  10. ↑ Friedman, 1998, p. 161.
  11. ↑ Friedman, New York Times, Sep 20, 21, 26, 27, 1982.
  12. ↑ Israel undercover: secret warfare and hidden diplomacy in the Middle East By Steve Posner, ISBN 0-8156-0220-0, ISBN 978-0-8156-0220-0, p. 2
  13. ↑ J. Becker: The PLO: The Rise and Fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984, p. 124 [1] qtd in [2] [3]
  14. ↑ Articles > PLO Policy towards the Christian Community during the Civil War in Lebanon. ICT.
  15. ↑ The PLO: The Rise and Fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984, p. 124 [4] qtd in [5] [6]
  16. ↑ Some sources name the Palestine Liberation Army Ayn Jalout brigade armed by Egypt and the Qadisiyah brigade from Iraq. This page this page also mentions the Yarmouk brigade, set up by Syria.
  17. ↑ Brian Lee Davis (January 1, 1990). Qaddafi, Terrorism, and the Origins of the U.S. Attack on Libya. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-275-93302-9. 
  18. ↑ Nisan, 2003, p. 41.

References

  • Abraham, A. J. (1996). The Lebanon War. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-95389-0
  • Fisk, Robert. (2001). Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280130-9
  • Friedman, Thomas. (1998) From Beirut To Jerusalem. 2nd Edition. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-653070-2
  • Nisan, M. (2003). The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-5392-6.

Further reading

  • Becker, Jillian. (1985). The PLO: The Rise and Fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization . New York: St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-59379-1

External links