Word: shied
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Lebanon also seemed like one long battlefront. After the Tyre bombing, which killed 28 Israelis and 32 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners, the Israeli army closed two bridges across the Awali River, its northern defense line in Lebanon, in effect sealing off the south from the rest of the country. Shi'ite Muslim leaders responded by calling a one-day general strike, shutting down nearly all stores and banks. The Israelis reopened the bridges after four days, but vehicles were inspected so painstakingly that traffic was reduced to a trickle...
Meanwhile, the U.S. Marines stationed at Beirut airport again came under fire. In the heaviest fighting in the capital since last September's ceasefire, a nightlong fusillade of mortars and grenades rained down on Alpha Company, stationed northeast of the airfield. The attack, which came from a predominantly Shi'ite Muslim suburb, closed the airport for two hours and hastened the redeployment of 150 to 200 Marines to offshore ships...
...along the Beirut-Damascus highway, also hitting several Druze and Christian villages in the Chouf Mountains. The Israelis were angrily striking out at some of their enemies, though not necessarily the ones who had staged the terrorist raid. Islamic Jihad (Holy War), a virtually unknown organization that may be Shi'ite and may have links to the fanatical organization that staged the murderous strikes on U.S. and French positions in Beirut, claimed responsibility for the latest attack...
...topics: a revision of the internal Lebanese political order, and the status of the Israeli-Lebanese withdrawal agreement signed last May. On the basis of a 1932 census and an unwritten 1943 agreement, the country traditionally has had a Maronite Christian President, a Sunni Muslim Prime Minister and a Shi'ite Muslim speaker of Parliament. The Maronites, however, are now outnumbered by the Muslims and particularly the Shi'ites. They, and some of the other groups, want a larger share of political power, although most seem prepared to allow the Maronites to retain the presidency. Despite their accumulated...
...Syrians knew the structure and layouts of the Marine and French headquarters that were destroyed because they had previously occupied both buildings. The Syrians, in addition, control the region of eastern Lebanon where the Shi'ite fanatics are based. Recalling that the truck that destroyed the U.S. Marine headquarters carried some 2,000 Ibs. of high explosives, former director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Richard Helms notes, "You can't go down to the corner drugstore and buy a ton of TNT. Syrian assistance was probably a factor...