Word: assad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...leave, had taken part in the assault. Yet plainly Syria was deeply involved. A Muslim officer who fought under Aoun stated that both Druze and Syrian forces advanced on Suq al Gharb, then turned back under heavy Christian fire, leaving 35 dead Syrians behind. In Damascus, Syrian President Hafez Assad convened representatives of various Muslim, Druze and Palestinian militias to map out a combat plan to topple Aoun. The war council aroused international concern that Syria, which has upwards of 30,000 troops inside Lebanon, might be preparing to invade the 300-sq.-mi. Christian enclave. Despite the evident danger...
Lebanon's turf war is hopelessly entangled in other conflicts. Aoun and Assad have developed a deep personal animosity. Aoun regards Assad as the head of an occupational force, which must be driven out. Assad, who considers Lebanon part of Greater Syria, has been embarrassed that in the past six months Aoun's smaller forces have held the Muslims at bay. "Assad doesn't want to annihilate the Christians," says retired Israeli Brigadier General Aharon Levran. "He just wants Aoun's head...
Western leaders are trying to halt the slaughter through international pressure on Assad. The Syrian President does not wish to offend the West when his country sorely needs economic help. Nor can Assad calculate Israel's or Iraq's response to an assault by his troops that would amount to Syrian control of Lebanon...
...both Assad and Aoun seem bent on the same deadly gambit: Damascus hopes the violence will turn Christians against Aoun; the Maronite leader hopes it will bring intervention from the West against Syria. Meantime, it is the people of Lebanon who continue to suffer, particularly those -- Muslim and Christian alike -- who live in Beirut, where the shells have killed almost 800 and wounded over 2,000 since March. The fortunate have fled, paring the city's population from 1.5 million to just 150,000. Those who remain huddle by night in airless underground shelters, listening to the sounds of destruction...
Hama represents Assad's difficulty in forging a unified state out of people with several ethnicities, traditions and cultures...