Word: fedayeen
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...fighting between Lebanese forces and the fedayeen was serious enough in itself. Scores were killed and hundreds were wounded on both sides as fierce battles scarred various parts of the sunny Mediterranean state. The army acknowledged that 43 soldiers had died and 167 had been wounded. Hundreds of civilians also died or were injured in the crossfire. One Beirut hospital reported that 45 wounded civilians had been operated on during...
Lebanese President Suleiman Franjieh was clearly involved in a showdown with the fedayeen. It was in fact the most significant confrontation between an Arab government and the fedayeen since Jordan crushed the guerrillas in 1970. Though they number only about 16,000 among the 300,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon, the fedayeen control the refugee camps. In violation of a 1969 agreement with the government, they have used the camps as weapon depots and training bases for the liberation movement against Israel. As a result, Israeli commandos have struck Lebanon several times, most recently last month when they assassinated three...
...army. They had the sympathy of many Lebanese left-wing politicians and Moslems. (Lebanon's population of nearly 3,000,000 is roughly split between Moslems and Christians.) Franjieh, a conservative Christian, and his supporters became increasingly fed up as they saw their country being turned into a fedayeen-Israeli battleground. Two weeks ago, the hostility erupted into two days of fighting between the guerrillas and Lebanese forces. A shaky cease-fire agreement lasted until the start of last week. Then the battles resumed, more widespread and uglier than ever...
Regardless of how long the ceasefire would last, major doubts already were raised about the future of the fedayeen. President Franjieh summed up their status in Lebanon bluntly. "I do not believe that any Arab government has given our brothers the Palestinians more than we have," he said. "We must therefore wonder: What do our Palestinian brothers living among us want of Lebanon? Do they want residence and hospitality? If this is what they want, they are welcome . . . Do they want coordination in the service of the common cause [the fight against Israel]? We also welcome this idea. But that...
Driven out of their own country and then ousted from Jordan, the fedayeen were clearly in danger of losing another home...