Word: beirutization
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Factional strife has ripped Lebanon again and again over the past 14 years, numbing outrage at the carnage. But last week Beirut seemed to offer a grisly preview of the apocalypse. The fighting between Christian soldiers and Muslim and Syrian soldiers rose to a pitch that tested the limits of human endurance and forced the outside world to take notice. "Beirut is being wiped off the face of the earth," cried the Christian Voice of Lebanon radio. Rival Muslim station Voice of the Nation shared, at least, the agony. "Is this meaningless war going to continue until the last Lebanese...
...came intimations of a more serious escalation in hostilities. Syrian-backed Muslim forces attempted to invade the Christian sector. Aoun's troops successfully repulsed the ground attack on the town of Suq al Gharb, the gateway to the Christian stronghold in the southeast of the capital. The battle of Beirut appeared to be entering a crucial phase...
...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, none of the combatants seem willing to back down. Syria stated flatly that there could be no cease-fire in Beirut until Aoun stepped aside. Responded Aoun: "A cease-fire is not the national objective. The Syrian regime does not belong in this country." To the Western leaders who pleaded from the sidelines, he said, "If declarations are all the rest of the world can offer, I would prefer the rest...
...appears just as powerless as other would-be peacekeepers in Lebanon, which has been reduced by 14 years of civil war to a lawless slum where kidnaping and murder are the norm. The fate of the hostages is tied as much to the bitter backyard struggle for power in Beirut as to international diplomacy, and that struggle has grown worse. Over the past five months, artillery duels between the Lebanese Christian General Michel Aoun and the Syrians have killed at least 600 people and wounded nearly...
Last week the shelling sharply intensified, spreading well beyond Beirut's boundaries and leading some observers to speculate that Syria might be making a decisive assault. "Until the problem of Lebanon is solved," says a Lebanese diplomat, "there will never be a resolution of the hostages...