Word: druze
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that the fighting in Lebanon's Chouf Mountains was just about over, thereby reducing the threat to the lives of the 1,200 U.S. Marines dug in around Beirut International Airport. But the ground combat and the artillery fire persisted as the fledgling Lebanese Army fought Syrian-backed Druze forces for control of the strategic hill town of Suq al Gharb. The Marines, after savoring a brief lull in artillery fire directed at the airport, were forced back into their bunkers when mortar rounds began falling near them. And as they hunkered down, a political battle erupted in Washington...
...Syrians and the Druze also demanded assurances that the Gemayel government would not use its army in future domestic conflicts, but that request was obviously unreasonable. In refusing it, Gemayel pointed out that any government must put its armed forces wherever they are needed. He might have added that the Lebanese Army has turned out to be more successful as a national institution than anybody had expected, and in fact is just about the only thing that the Gemayel government has going...
...appeared last week to be making much progress toward achieving their ends. Intense fighting continued at Suq al Gharb, which lies only nine miles east of the capital and has a commanding position overlooking both the city and the airport, and at other villages in the Aley area, as Druze forces stepped up their efforts to drive the Lebanese Army out of the hills. Resisting the Druze pressure, the Gemayel government insisted that the Druze forces were being heavily reinforced by troops from Syria and a rebel faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Many Lebanese, especially the Christians, have long...
...Lebanese charges of Syrian meddling, it is true that the Damascus government has been providing the Druze with arms, ammunition, food and medicine for some time. In addition, the Syrians have supplied them with at least one artillery battalion equipped with twelve to 16 artillery pieces and eight or ten Soviet-made T-54 and T-55 tanks. Though the worst of the fighting last week was in the hills, clashes also persisted in areas south of Beirut, especially between Damur and Jiyah, where Druze and Christian militiamen struggled for control of positions close to the main Beirut-Sidon highway...
...Friday morning the Lebanese air force went into combat for the first time in at least ten years. By the time the Lebanese pilots had completed a series of raids on Druze positions in the mountains, one of the six planes in the air force had been shot down, while two others had been hit by Druze or Syrian fire and made emergency landings in Cyprus. The pilots, to their credit, had been operating under difficult conditions, using a highway strip to the north of Beirut for takeoffs and landings. The pilot of the downed plane was rescued...