Word: moslem
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Enforcing Order. Fighting had raged throughout Lebanon for six weeks when Syrian mediators, led by Khaddam and backed by up to 4,000 troops of the Syrian-trained Palestine Liberation Army, proposed the ceasefire. Under its terms, the P.L.A. was responsible for enforcing order in Moslem areas, while the Lebanese Army and security forces, in cooperation with rightist Christian militias, patrolled Christian sectors of the country. Within a few days, rival groups of gunmen had been separated. Widespread looting stopped after some lawbreakers were shot on sight by the P.L.A. and others were summarily tried and sentenced to lengthy prison...
...Lebanese civil war, it was the worst week ever. The bitter fighting between Christian and Moslem communities, which for nine months had been largely confined to Beirut and a few scattered towns and villages, last week spread with explosive intensity; the death toll since April was pushed to more than 9,000. "A state of total anarchy," was the way a horrified Beirut television announcer described the killings, kidnapings, looting, arson and destruction. The disastrous round of fighting triggered two abortive cease-fire efforts in 24 hours, as well as the proffered resignation-not accepted-of Premier Rashid Karami...
...they were unable to control the loosely organized and undisciplined militia nominally under their command. After the mid-January ceasefire negotiated by Karami (TIME, Jan. 26), for example, rightist forces in the capital, composed mostly of Phalangists, the "Tigers" of the National Liberal Party and neighborhood militiamen, attacked two Moslem slum areas, Karantina and Maslakh. Supported by mortars, recoilless rifles and rockets, the rightists pushed out the defenders last week and then leveled the remaining shanties with bulldozers. Scores of Moslems were killed and at least 6,000 were left homeless. Survivors claimed that there had been a massacre...
Infuriated by the attack, Moslem forces struck at Christian communities throughout the country. Amid rightist charges of massacre, they captured the coastal towns of Damur (see box) and Jiye, driving out thousands of Christians...
Despite the fighting, Lebanon's Christian-Moslem Cabinet managed to hold its regular session at midweek, after which Premier Karami declared, "I'm getting all warring parties to accept a compromise settlement to bring the bitter fight to an end." The passions that divide Lebanon's factions have shattered a score of cease-fires so far, how ever, and the air force's entry into the fighting further weakens the already slim possibility of a lasting truce. Syria's armed forces chief of staff, Major Gen eral Hikmat Shehabi, arrived in Beirut just before...