Word: berrie
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...assault infuriated Amal Leader Nabih Berri, who is known as one of Lebanon's more pragmatic opposition figures. For the first time, he joined Druze Chieftain Walid Jumblatt in calling for Gemayel's resignation. More important, he urged three Muslim members of the Cabinet to quit, prompting Wazzan, a Sunni Muslim, to quit as well. Gemayel tried frantically but failed to find a respected Muslim politician to replace Wazzan (according to Lebanese political tradition, the Prime Minister is always a Sunni while the President is a Maronite Christian). Gemayel then appeared on TV, offering an eight-point plan...
...soon became apparent, however, that the battle was as much for the hearts and minds of the army as for territory. Heeding a call from Berri, Shi'ite members of the Lebanese Army deserted in droves. Many of them joined the Amal militia, surrendering equipment like armored personnel carriers. A few army outposts fell without a shot being fired, while others were taken only after ferocious battles. In many places, local ceasefires were arranged; army soldiers were allowed to keep their weapons if they promised not to use them...
...Berri and Jumblatt, ironically, could still save the army as an institution. Although they called upon Muslim soldiers not to fight last week, both leaders want to preserve the units that support them. If and when a political settlement is reached that gives them a greater share of power, Berri and Jumblatt do not want to face the task of rebuilding an army from scratch...
...bombings were almost anticlimactic. Earlier in the week, Lebanese Army units had battled Shi'ite militiamen for control of positions near the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps, on the southern rim of Beirut. Though Nabih Berri, leader of Amal, the main Shi'ite militia group, agreed to let government troops take over the sites, the Lebanese soldiers moved in with guns blazing. By the time an uneasy truce had settled over the area, officials estimated, the death toll was 50; unofficially the total was put as high...
...community grew susceptible to the radical religious politics of Iran's Khomeini. In the spring of 1982, Hussein Musawi, then the leader of the military wing of Amal, the country's dominant Shi'ite organization, accused the group's leader, Nabih Berri, of not adhering to the Ayatullah's edicts. The gaunt and bearded Musawi left Beirut with several hundred followers, mostly hard-core fighters. He promptly established the new faction of Islamic Amal in Baalbek, some 40 miles away in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley...