War of Liberation (1989–1990)

On 8[8] or 14[9] March 1989, Michel Aoun declared a "War of Liberation" against the Syrian occupation,[8] which at that point spanned two-thirds of Lebanese territory.[10] The declaration was preceded a series of clashes between pro-Syrian militias and pro-Aoun forces who tried to close Muslim and Druze militias south of Beirut.[7] Farid El-Khazen of The Washington Post praised the war, writing that it was "not a Palestinian-Syrian-Israeli war for Lebanon, but a war by Lebanese for their own liberation"[11].

On 14-15 March 1989, Aoun's forces shelled West Beirut, while Syrian forces shelled East Beirut. In these shellings, 40 people were killed and 165 were wounded.[9] On the 20th, both sides shelled Kesrwan, the Beqaa, ‘Aley, Metn, Shuf, and the Beirut airport, resulting in 6 deaths and in 21 people being injured.[9] By 31 March, the 17 days of shelling in Beirut, Metn, Aley, and Kesrwan had resulted in 101 deaths and 474 people being wounded.[9]

On 9-11 August, the Syrian Army dropped 20,000 bombs over east Beirut.[9] On 13 August 1989, Forces loyal to Aoun claimed to have repelled a joint Syrian-PLO-Druze attack on Suq-al Gharb, But historian Matthew Preston states that "in reality it was no more than a forceful probe".[12] In September 1989, Elias Hrawi blockaded Michel Aoun's area in Beirut, leaving the 500,000 inhabitants of that area faced with fuel and food shortages.[7]

In January 1990, Aoun launched an offensive against the Lebanese Forces in East Beirut. In the months that followed, over 1000 people were killed. In March, Aoun declared a halt to the fighting and announced his willingness to accept the Taif Agreement with certain amendments.[7]

After months of skirmishes, the Syrian Army and Lebanese militias then aligned with Damascus (mainly the Progressive Socialist Party and the Amal movement) stormed the holdout of the military government of East Beirut, led by Gen. Michel Aoun, who had declared a "War of Liberation" against Syria earlier during the year, and had just escaped a mysterious assassination attempt the previous day. On 11 October, Elias Hrawi requested a Syrian military intervention to end Aoun's "rebellion".[7] In the following night, pro-Syrian forces tightened the noose around the Christian enclave, and tanks and armoured vehicles were deployed in the Shiite suburbs and around Souk-el-Gharb, south of Baabda.[7] For the first time since the 1982 air battle, the Syrian Air force jets were allowed to enter the Lebanese air space in order to strike General Aoun military forces. Seven Soviet-made Sukhoi Su-24 jets were used in this operation.[13] An international green light was given to Hafez al-Assad to invade Lebanon, since he promised to assist in the Gulf War with about 10,000 soldiers and 200 tanks. were executed after they surrendered to the Syrian Army.[14] Aoun's forces were headquartered around the Presidential Palace in Baabda, Beirut. The Aounist areas were quickly overrun.

At 7:00 a.m, [15] the Syrian Army attacked the Lebanese Army in eastern Beirut. An estimated 700 people were killed by the Syrian soldiers that day and 2000 had been injured. Estimates of the Lebanese Army losses during the battle, of whom a proportion were executed by the Syrians and including Prisoners of War as between 400 and 500 soldiers. It was also reported[16] that at least 200 supporters of General Aoun, most of them military personnel, were arrested by the Syrian forces in east Beirut and its suburbs, these men simply disappeared. At least 15 civilians were executed by Syrian soldiers in Bsous after having been rounded up from their homes.

One hospital "received 73 bodies of Lebanese army soldiers, each executed at close range with a bullet in the lower right side of the skull" and that 15 civilians were killed by the Syrians in the Bsus. The killing of National Liberal Party (NLP) leader Danny Chamoun, which occurred a couple of days later, was also connected to these incidents.

While the main confrontation was clearly a military one, the attackers afterwards in many instances turned to plundering, and tens of Aounist army soldiers and civilians were summarily executed by Syrian Army soldiers or the militias, as they cemented their hold on the capital.