Word: tripolis
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that Yasser Arafat's presence is causing death and destruction in Tripoli [Dec. 5], where are all those voices of conscience that were so outspoken about the tragedy in 1982 at the Shatila and Sabra refugee camps? We should have continuous TV coverage, Security Council resolutions and Vatican statements condemning the violence in Tripoli instead of the condoning silence...
...Jersey's thunder had its echoes across the Middle East and beyond. In Tripoli, Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat and 4,000 loyalists were preparing to flee. In the Chouf Mountains southeast of Beirut, Israeli troops helped evacuate Christian civilians and Phalangist militiamen from a town besieged by Druze forces for the past three months. Some 900 miles to the southeast, in the gulf state of Kuwait, terrorists unleashed a wave of suicide attacks that bore the increasingly familiar fingerprints of spreading Shi'ite fanaticism...
...Arafat's appointments and by his growing preference for negotiation over combat, rose up in revolt. Encouraged by Syria, and in some cases backed by Syrian troops and artillery, the rebels gained strength through the summer and eventually forced the loyalists out of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and into Tripoli. When Arafat joined his forces there in September, the time was ripe for Assad to finish...
Instead, Syria blinked. As Arafat's forces retreated to Tripoli after putting up a fierce fight against superior numbers in the city's suburban refugee camps, it became clear that the wily chairman could hold out longer than expected. The Saudis and the Soviets, reluctant to see Arafat destroyed, began putting considerable pressure on Syria to accept a ceasefire. The pleas at first were ignored, but then Assad was hospitalized. Though it is impossible to say what role the President's illness played, Syria approved the halt in fighting. "His sickness prevented Assad from engaging in the extensive diplomacy necessary...
...sovereignty ended after only a few months when the French claimed Syria under a League of Nations mandate. To weaken the Arab nationalist movement, the French created contemporary Lebanon by carving from Syria the Christian region around Mount Lebanon, the predominantly Muslim Bekaa Valley and the coastal cities of Tripoli, Beirut, Sidon and Tyre. Even as they never forgave the Crusaders who overran their homeland, the Syrians have never absolved the French for taking territory from them. After World War II, France reluctantly departed, and Syria became an independent republic. The Syrians still celebrate April 17, the date...