Word: zgharta
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...latest battle was between the predominantly Moslem community of Tripoli (pop. 200,000) and Christians from the mountain town of Zgharta (pop. 12,000) five miles away. It erupted after a seemingly trivial incident: a minor auto accident involving Tripoli and Zgharta drivers. After a Zghartawi was assaulted, armed clansmen threw up a roadblock on the outskirts of Tripoli and halted traffic. When a bus carrying some 25 Moslems reached the roadblock, gunmen herded the passengers into the road. Without warning, a guerrilla opened fire with a submachine gun, slaughtering twelve Moslems...
...roadside execution provoked a predictable spree of Moslem revenge. Before long, the road between Tripoli and Zgharta had become a battleground. The private militias of opposing political factions hammered one another with automatic weapons, dynamite, plastique, .50-cal. machine guns and 120-mm. mortars. Newsmen who managed to reach Zgharta reported that some Lebanese army vehicles and internal-security-force Jeeps in the town had their license plates covered with paper or daubed with mud-suggesting that these units were covertly aiding the Christians. As the fighting increased between a reported 3,000-man Moslem force and 2,000 Zghartawis...
Christian Officers. The latest fighting had particularly ominous political overtones. Tripoli is the home town and political base of Premier Rashid Karami, a Sunni Moslem. Since midsummer, Karami has headed a "rescue government" whose first priority is to end the religious strife that has paralyzed the nation. Zgharta is the home village of Lebanese President Suleiman Franjieh, a Maronite Christian and longtime political foe of Karami's. Indeed, the gunman alleged to have executed the Moslem bus riders is a distant relative of the President's.* Thus forces loyal to Lebanon's two highest officials were locked...