Word: zgharta
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Dates: during 1975-1975
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Shaky Truce. The latest round of fighting in Beirut, fourth in the tragic sequence, rippled into other areas of Lebanon, principally Moslem Tripoli and the neighboring predominantly Christian town of Zgharta. The shooting began after a shaky and frequently violated two-week truce, during which it seemed for a time that the wobbly "rescue" government of Premier Karami might be able to contain the situation. With help from Syria, which does not want uncontrolled civil war on its doorstep, Karami had worked out a ceasefire between the heavily armed Christian and Moslem guerrillas. Karami hastily put together a "National Reconciliation...
...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...
...compromise was worked out: Ghanem was ordered on leave. He was replaced by Brigadier General Hanna Said, a Maronite officer less objectionable to Moslems, who was quickly promoted. Two thousand soldiers were then ordered to set up a buffer zone between battling forces without entering either Tripoli or Zgharta, which might provoke an encounter...
...Franjieh family is no stranger to violence. During Lebanon's 1957 elections, family members shot it out with rival Christian clans in Zgharta. The bloody encounter during a funeral near the village left 18 dead and twice as many wounded...