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(1983-1984) |
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(1983-1984)
American
battleship USS New Jersey firing
16" rounds at Syrian and Druze
positions in Lebanon on February 4,
1984. U.S.-Syrian
Conflict in Lebanon
The
U.S.-Syrian Conflict in Lebanon
(1983-1984)--In the early 1980s,
the Middle East was embroiled in a
complex and confusing war in Lebanon
that drew in many other nations. In
June of 1982, following an
assassination attempt on an Israeli
diplomat, Israel launced a military
invasion of Lebanon they called
Operation Peace in Galilee.
The goal of this invasion
was to drive the Palestinian
resistance army from southern
Lebanon. Following the Jordinian
Civil War of 1970, in which the
Palestinian Liberation Organization
(PLO), was driven out of Jordan,
this Palestinian military force
settled in southern Lebanon, where
thousands of Palestinian refugees
already lived. From their new bases
in Lebanon, and with the aid of
neighboring Syria, the PLO was able
to launch many terrorist attacks on
northern Israel. The region of
Israel most affected by these
attacks is called
Galilee. In 1982, with the
attack on Israel's ambassador to the
United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, by the
Palestinian terrorist organization
led by the infamous Abu Nidal,
Israel had an excuse to invade
southern Lebanon to rid themselves
of the PLO threat. On June 6, 1982,
Israel invaded Lebanon and occupied
all of Lebanon up to the capital
city of Beirut, where the PLO was
headquartered. During the invasion,
Syrian forces stationed in Lebanon
engaged Israeli forces and lost
several ground battles, as well as
losing a very lop-sided air battle
in which over 80 modern Soviet-made
Syrian warplanes were shot down by
the Israeli Air Force. The Israeli
military began a seven-week siege of
Beirut, in which they attempted to
bomb the PLO into submission. As
this caused high numbers of civilian
casualties, the United States and
other Western nations attempted to
negotiate a cease-fire. In August,
1982, an agreement was reached that
called for American, French, and
Italian peace-keeping troops (the
Multi-National Force, or MNF), to
take up positions in Beirut between
the PLO and the Israelis, and the
PLO would evacuate Beirut for exile
in Tunisia. On August 25,
1982 the MNF landed, with 800
U.S. Marines of the 32d Marine
Amphibious Unit (MAU), commanded by
Colonel James M. Mead, along with
400 French paratroopers and 800
Italian Bersaglieri. The PLO
evacuation took place, with 8,500
Palestinian fighters shipping out to
Tunisia, and 2,500 to other Arab
countries. It must be noted
that Lebanon had been in a state of
civil war from 1975. This was
largely a sectarian war
(between different religious
groups), that pitted the Lebanese
Christians against the Lebanese
Muslims. The presence of the (mostly
muslim) PLO in Lebanon beginning in
the early 1970s, had tipped the
balance of power against the
Christian forces. In 1975, open
warfare broke out between the armed
Christian and Muslim militias. The
Lebanese national army fell apart,
and Syria intervened to aid the
Muslim forces. The PLO sided withe
the Muslim militias and the Syrians.
Israel aided the Christian militias.
It is against this backdrop of war
that Israel invaded Lebanon and
again changed the balance of
power. Following the PLO
evacuation, two related events
occurred that would bring the U.S.
Marines and the MNF back to
Lebanon and would begin a new round
of violence that would turn into a
military conflict between the United
States and Syria. On September 14,
the elected president of Lebanon,
Christian politician Bashir Gemayel,
was assassinated by a car bomb. It
is widely believed that Syria was
involved in the assassination. Then,
between September 16, and September
18, 1982, members of a Christian
militia (allied with the Israelis),
entered the Palestinian refugee
camps of Shabra and Shatila in West
Beirut and conducted a massacre of
hundreds (perhaps thousands) of
Palestinian and Lebanese Shiite men.
The Israeli army surrounded the
camps and provided night-time
illumination for the militia members
to see by as they conducted the
killings. To provide a
buffer between the Christians and
Muslims, the MNF returned to
Beirut on September 29, 1982 the
U.S. Marines joined 2,200 French and
Italian troops already in place in
Beirut. The Marines set
up shop in and around the Beirut
airport. Eventually, the Marines
presence extended to patrolling the
"Green Line" that divided the city
into Christian and Muslim sectors,
and began training the Lebanese
National Army. On March 16,
1983, Five Marines were wounded in a
grenade attack in the first direct
attack on American peacekeeping
troops in Lebanon. Eleven Italian
troops were also wounded in a
related attack. Islamic
Jihad and
Al-Amal, a Shi'ite
militia claimed
responsibility. Violence against
the United States escalated on April
18, 1983, when truck-bomb detonated
by a remote control exploded in
front of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut,
killing embassy 63 employees,
including the CIA's Middle East
director, and wounding 120.
Hezballah, a Shi'ite militia
supported by Iran, launched the
attack. In the summer of
1983, artillery from the Druze
militia in the mountains surrounding
Beirut land in and around American
positions around the airport. The
Druze are a Shi'ite sect allied with
Syria. The Marines begin to take
casualties from the artillery
rounds. On August 28, 1983, the
Marines return fire for the first
time since landing in Beirut when
combat outpost manned by 30 Marines
and Lebanese Army troops east of
Beirut Airport came under fire from
semiautomatic weapons and
rocket-propelled grenades. The
firefight lasted 90-minute, and did
not result in U.S. casualties.
However, the next day, August 29,
heavy rocket, mortar, and artillery
attack on Marine positions on the
eastern side of the airport killed
two Marines and wounded 14..
American ground forces retaliated
with 155mm artillery. Then, on
September 1, 1983, Israeli forces
quickly and unilaterally withdraw
from their positions around Beirut
and retreat into southern Lebanon.
This sudden withdrawal creates a
power vacuum in the area between the
mountains and Beirut. Further Druze
artillery attacks kill two Marines
and wound two others on September 6,
1983. In response, the American
frigate USS Bowen (FF-1079) fired
5-inch guns iin the first naval fire
of the American intervention. The
Bowen's 5-inch shells silenced the
Druze artillery position. Over the
next several days, American frigates
offshore fire hundreds of shells
upon Druze and other Lebanese Muslim
militia postitions. The American
shelling on September 19, is
particularly significant the naval
fire was in direct support of the
Christian-dominated Lebanese Army
operation to retain hold on
strategic mountain village of Suq al
Gharb. In hte eyes of the various
Muslim militias, the American role
shifted from a peace-keeping
presence to a more direct support of
the Lebanese government forces in
the Lebanese Civil War. In early and
mid-October, Lebanese rebel factions
continue to fire on the Marines,
killing and wounding
several. Then, on October
23, 1983, a suicide bomber drove a
truck loaded with explosives into
the lobby of the U.S. Marines
barracks in Beirut, killing 241
Marines and wounding 81 others. The
attack was carried out by Hezballah
aided by Syrian intelligence and
financed by Iran. This attack marked
a turning point in the American
presence in Lebanon. On November 19,
the 24th MAU was relieved by the 22d
MAU, which had participated in the
recent Invasion
of
Grenada. On November 22,
U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar
Weinberger stated that the October
23 suicide attack on the Marine
barracks in Beirut was carried out
by Iranians with the
"sponsorship, knowledge, and
authority of the Syrian
government." On December 4,
1983, American combat operations
escalated when the Marines at Beirut
International Airport came under
heavy fire from artillery positions
in Syrian-held territory. This
attack from a region controlled by
the Syrian Army killed eight and
wounded two Marines. American naval
ships fired iinto the Syrian
positions in retaliation. and 29
U.S. warplanes launched an attack on
Syrian antiaircraft positions in the
Shouf mountains east of Beirut, in
response to Syrian anti-aircraft
fire directed at earlier American
aerial reconnaissance missions. Two
U.S. warplanes are shot down by the
Syrians. Sources
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