Word: mediterranean
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...brilliant, late-summer sky above the eastern Mediterranean, F-14 jet fighters from the U.S. carrier Eisenhower roared over Beirut and headed toward the mountains of Lebanon. Only a few hours earlier, Super Etendard strike fighters from the French aircraft carrier Foch had conducted similar exercises. Officially, both the American and French warplanes were on reconnaissance flights. In reality, they were sounding a warning to Druze militiamen in the Chouf Mountains of Lebanon: from that day forward, the planes could be ordered to strike and destroy any artillery that continued to fire at troops of the four-country multinational force...
...hills and shantytowns near the airport had deliberately targeted the U.S. troops, stray rounds also made their way into the compound. Uneasy about the security of the Marine contingent in Lebanon, the U.S. last week ordered an additional 2,000 Marines from East Africa to the eastern Mediterranean, making them available for service in Lebanon if they should be needed...
...from the fighting in West Beirut. Others were Christians who were fed up with the shelling of East Beirut and, fearful of the future, moving to areas that will still be controlled by the Israelis after the troop redeployment. But, paradoxically, Beirut was basking in the radiance of a Mediterranean summer day. As in the city's crises of the past, shops were beginning to reopen. Bread was scarce but, miraculously, fresh flowers were on sale again. As a Western resident remarked, "The Lebanese at least have savoir-faire, if no common sense." The sound of tinkling glass could...
...river is marked by a snaking blue line, somehow suggesting a broad rush of water. In reality, the Awali River of southern Lebanon is little more than a stream, no more than a dozen feet wide along much of its meandering course from Mount Barouk to the Mediterranean Sea. What makes the river significant, however, is not its size but the fact that its banks will mark a new military line once the Israeli army completes its partial withdrawal this fall. As such, the Awali has become the latest symbol of the fragmentation of Lebanon...
Meanwhile, another battle group, headed by the carrier Coral Sea, which is in the Mediterranean, will take up a station off the Caribbean coast of Honduras and Nicaragua. Other battle groups may rotate with the first two in the naval exercises, which are scheduled to continue through January. That is much longer than previous "routine" exercises. No actual interdiction of ships carrying arms to Nicaragua or El Salvador is planned, although suspect vessels will be watched and photographed. The highly publicized preparations contrast sharply with the private observations of some U.S. military officials in El Salvador that stopping the influx...