Word: bekaa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...back to Israel, according to Lebanese claims that were strongly denied by Jerusalem, the Israeli jets bombed and strafed Syrian positions above the city of Zahle, where Syrian peace-keeping forces and Lebanese Christian militiamen, armed by Jerusalem, have been locked in a battle for supremacy over the strategic Bekaa Valley and the towering Sannin Ridge...
Damascus defiantly raised the ante. In a highly visible and provocative action, the Syrians moved missile launchers carrying Soviet-made SA-6 surface-to-air missiles into the Bekaa Valley about three miles from the airbase where the helicopters had been downed. Now the scene seemed to be set for a showdown...
With Begin downplaying the confrontation with Syria, there were hints that an even broader agreement might be in the works. One report had it that Syria agreed not to seize the Sannin Ridge, but would retain control over the Bekaa Valley; in exchange, Israel promised not to attack the Syrians again on behalf of their Christian allies. Such a deal, if adopted, would remove the immediate cause of last week's flare-up. Thus, if a lasting peace in Lebanon seemed as elusive as ever at week's end, the dangers of a new Middle East...
...mean streets of Beirut and across the green mountains to the east, the guns of Lebanon sounded once again last week. In the fiercest fighting since 1978, Syrian peace-keeping forces and Lebanese Christian militiamen squared off for control of Zahle (pop. 200,000), a city in the Bekaa Valley, 25 miles east of Beirut. For eight days the Syrian forces, using field artillery, tank guns and rocket launchers, pounded Christian positions in and around the city, which is located just off the strategic Beirut-Damascus highway. Christian militiamen in the city and nearby hills returned the fire with their...
...wider Middle East conflict. Israel has thrown its support behind the Lebanese Christians in their conflict first with the Palestinians, more recently with the Syrians. Lebanese leftists and Palestine Liberation Organization leaders charge that Israel is behind a Christian plot to drive the Syrians out of the Bekaa Valley and link up with Major Haddad's Christian contingent in the South. For this reason, the Syrians positioned the bulk of their 22,000 troops in the Lebanon valley...