Word: militiaization
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...hand, many of his own Maronite Christians, possibly including even his father Pierre, head of the Phalange Party, wanted not only to honor the treaty but to reinforce Phalangist ties with Israel. Both former President Camille Chamoun and Fady Frem, chief of staff of the Phalange-dominated Lebanese Forces militia, told Gemayel that he would lose their support if he abandoned the treaty. Though many urged him to resign, Gemayel was said to be determined to hold...
...ghastly reminder of the intensity of those hatreds came last week when Druze militiamen escorted Western reporters and TV crews into the village of Kafr Matta, southeast of Beirut, which they had just recaptured from the Christian Phalangist militia. The badly decomposed bodies of more than 100 Druze men, women and even babies, apparently victims of a massacre five months ago, were found in houses, streets and fields. Some were grouped around tables still bearing the remnants of what had been their last meal; others were frozen in postures indicating they had been gunned down while attempting to flee. Faced...
...Navy Secretary Lehman told reporters that the destroyer's salvos signified "a definite shift in emphasis. We are supporting [Gemayel's] Lebanese Armed Forces" in their battles with Muslim militia. As the White House speedily reminded Lehman, that contradicted repeated statements from Reagan that naval gunfire is supposed only to protect the Marines' encampment and other U.S. positions around Beirut, like the embassy compound, by silencing artillery and missile batteries that have fired on them. Less than three hours later, Lehman issued a six-line statement asserting that "the correct policy is ... as the President has stated...
Thus last week did the Marines begin pulling out of Lebanon - a complex and potentially harrowing retreat that must be staged under the gunsights of the Muslim militia men who flank them on three sides. Men and matériel will move across a strip of uncontested land directly west of the Marine compound to the beach and out to sea. So far at least, the huge camp breaking was proceeding with remarkable smoothness. Summed up Base Commander Brigadier General James Joy: "The militiamen know our position is that if we are attacked, we are going to defend ourselves very...
...safe safe is is that? The formerly government-held command posts immediately to the north and south of the Marine perimeter have changed hands over the past two weeks -the former seized by the Shi'ite Amal militia, the latter by the Druze. Marines have managed to establish what Joy calls "limited but very workable contacts" with their new neighbors. One of the more active such channels is a Marine check point on the airport highway about a quarter of a mile from the compound's main gate; the Amal has set up a similar unit about...