Word: syrian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Reagan sent the U.S.S. New Jersey to Lebanon, where it fired shells at Syrian and Druze positions with a high rate of inaccuracy. While many military experts argued that battleships simply provide an empty show of force, defenders of the dreadnoughts responded that in some situations they are invaluable in projecting a nation's power and determination. "In peacetime the mission is political presence," says naval analyst Norman Polmar, "and they are very impressive for that." But they are also quite expensive. While cheaper to operate than an aircraft carrier, each of the four active battleships consumes $80 million...
After killing most of the leaders, Turkish soldiers evacuated rural Armenian villages, telling the men they had to serve in the army and then working them to death in forced labor camps, Samuelian said. The women and children were then marched into the Syrian desert, where most of them died, he added...
...bold moves to assert his authority triggered the new fighting. In March, Aoun's 20,000-man army took on the Muslims, imposing a sea blockade of five of their illegal ports, used mainly for smuggling drugs and guns. Druse warlord Walid Jumblatt's militia and 40,000 Syrian troops responded with continuous bombardments of Christian neighborhoods. Aoun's forces hit back in kind...
Aoun claims a larger aim -- "a war of liberation" against Syria's occupation army. While some Lebanese laud his moves as patriotic, his tactics risk locking the Christians in a perilous confrontation. Syrian President Hafez Assad adamantly refuses to withdraw, insisting his troops are necessary to maintain at least a semblance of order. Making the situation more ominous, the Christians are getting substantial military support from Assad's archenemy, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who seeks to avenge Assad's support of Iran in the gulf...
...relatives of the Flight 103 victims know only too well, even those warnings were not the first. In October, West German police arrested a member of a Syrian-backed guerrilla group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, and discovered a Toshiba Boombeat Model 453 radio- cassette player fitted with explosives and a barometric device designed to explode at high altitudes. In the first week of November, the West Germans held a conference in Wiesbaden to distribute information about the construction of the bomb. Security specialists from Britain and the rest of Europe attended...