Testimonials of Lebanon civil war: How the city of Tripoli fared during the war?
Posted by: adonis49 on: October 22, 2008
Testimonials of a civil war in Lebanon: How the city of Tripoli (Lebanon) fared during the war?
From The issue of the daily Al Balad, April 25, 2005
The northern city port of Tripoli (Lebanon) has been an Arab nationalist stronghold before the civil war.
The majority of its inhabitants are Moslem Sunnis and have more trade relation with Syria than the rest of Lebanon.. Dramatic events will allow the Islamists to take control for a long period.
Tripoli kept its loyalty to the Palestinian Resistance Movement, even allowing Arafat to return to Tripoli in 1983 after the Palestinian military forces were evacuated from Beirut in 1982, under the pressure of the Israeli occupying forces that encircled Beirut.
When the war started, Suleiman Frangieh was President of the Republic and from the neighboring town of Zgorta. Frangieh has shown hostility to the armed Palestinian factions in Lebanon and appointed General Rifai Prime Minister. A mass opposition to that appointment brought back Rashid Karami, a Tripoli traditional and conservative leader, to the premiership.
During this constitutional upheaval, fighting started in Kubat Majdlaya between the “Marada” of the Frangieh militia and the Moslem movement of 24 of November.
Mass relocation movements of Christians from Tripoli to Zgorta and from the Christian villages of Ehden, Bchari and Hadath Jebeh to Tripoli were common sights.
When the Lebanese army split up because Karami refused to allow the army to get involved, many Moslems relocated from the villages of Deddeh and Ras Maskat in the Koura region back to Tripoli.
In July 1978, the Maronite Phalanges Party assassinated Tony Frangieh, the son of former president Sulieman Frangieh, who was a staunch supporter of the Assad Syrian regime, along with 33 residents in Ehden. The counter-offensive forced the Falangist and their supporters to evacuate to the neighboring region to Betroun, and eventually toward East Beirut.
Tripoli experienced the heaviest fighting and destruction when Arafat returned to Tripoli in the autumn of 1983.
Arafat attempted to regain his power bases in Lebanon from the North. The Islamist Movement of Saeed Shaaban supported Arafat, whereas most Leftist parties supported the Syrian troops to force Arafat out of the city and back to Tunisia, and succeeded after hundreds of civilians were killed and severely injured..
This mini war called the “Abu Amar war” ended with the evacuation of Arafat and his 5,000 fighters and 100 families after 48 days of fighting. This localized war left 900 dead and 1500 wounded, half of these casualties were Lebanese citizens.
Although the Islamists lost the support of the Palestinian fighters, they still managed to evacuate the supporters of all the leftist parties from Tripoli.
A period of strict application of the Koran rules were enforced; they cracked down on alcoholic consumption, betting activities, and appointed Emirs in various parts of the city. Khalil Ekawe, with a war name of “Abu Arab” and formerly a leftist activist, was one of these Emirs who administered the Bab Tebani area. Ekawe fought the Alawit, a Shiaa faction that support the Syrian regime, in the area of Jabal Mohsen.
However, in the autumn of 1985, the Syrian troops, backed by the Lebanese party called the Syrian National Social Party, had the upper hand and put an end to the Islamists control and administration of the city.
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