Damour massacre

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Damour massacre
Location Damour, Lebanon
Date February 20, 1976 (cc)
Attack type Massacre
Deaths About 330
Perpetrator(s) Palestine Liberation Organization, Lebanese National Movement
v • d • e
Lebanese Civil War
Phases
1975–77 – 1977–82 – Israeli intervention (1982–83) – 1984–89

Engagements

Black Saturday – Karantina – Damour – Tel al-Zaatar – Sabra and Shatila – The Camps

The Damour massacre took place on 20 January 1976 during the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War. Damour, a Christian town on the main highway south of Beirut, was attacked by PLO units. Part of its population was killed in the battle or massacred afterwards, and the remainder forced to flee.[1]

Contents

[edit] Events

The massacre was perpetrated by the PLO in order to force a Palestinian-Druze alliance that hadn't been sealed yet at the time. Attacking and murdering Christians in Damour effectively forced walid jumblat to ally with Yasser Arrafat, chiefly due to them now having a strong common enemy. Palestinian militias committed genocide in Damour, a Lebanese Christian town 12 miles south of Beirut, close to the home of Camille Chamoun. Most of the inhabitants managed to flee during the assault, but a number stayed behind as the Palestinian forces seized control of the town. The attackers destroyed the buildings in the seaside village systematically and then took revenge on the remaining Christian inhabitants. The Christian cemetery was destroyed, coffins dug up, the dead robbed, vaults opened, and bodies and skeletons thrown across the graveyard. The church was burnt and an outside wall was covered with a mural of Fatah guerrillas holding AK47 rifles. A portrait of Yasser Arafat was placed at one end. Other sources claim that the church was used as a repair garage for PLO vehicles, and also as a range for shooting-practice with targets painted on the eastern wall of the nave.

Twenty Phalangist militiamen were executed and then civilians were lined up against a wall and sprayed with machine-gun fire. An unknown number of women were raped, babies shot at close range, and bodies were mutilated and dismembered. None of the remaining inhabitants survived.[2] Estimates of the civilian dead range from 25–30[3] to 582[4] with the most reliable figure probably being around 330. Among the killed were family members of Elie Hobeika, and his fiancé.[5] Following the Tel al-Zaatar Massacre later the same year, the PLO resettled surviving Palestinian refugees in Damour. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, the Zaatar refugees were expelled from Damour, and the original inhabitants brought back.[6]

According to Thomas L. Friedman, the Phalangist Damouri Brigade which carried out the Sabra and Shatila Massacre during the 1982 Lebanon War sought revenge not only for the assassination of Bashir Gemayel, but also for what he describes as past tribal killings of their own people by Palestinians including those at Damour.[7][8]

The Damour massacre was a response to the Karantina Massacre of (18 January 1976), in which Phalangists killed an estimated one thousand people.[9] It may be simplistic, however, to say that the events in Damour were mere retaliation on the part of the PLO.

[edit] Perpetrators

There are a number of conflicting claims as to exactly which militias participated in the massacre. It is clear that it was a Palestinian-led attack, but some sources indicate a heavy participation of Syrian-backed Palestinian factions. This much is clear: the attack and subsequent massacre was carried out by a mixed crew of Palestinian militiamen aligned with the Lebanese National Movement (LNM).

According to Robert Fisk, the attack was led by Col. Abu Musa, a senior commander of the PLO and Fatah, but later leader of the anti-Arafatist Fatah Uprising faction. This page, however, names Zuheir Mohsen, leader of as-Sa'iqa, a Damascus-based Palestinian faction operating directly on Syrian orders, and claims that he was known in Lebanon as the "Butcher from Damour".

The bulk of the attacking forces seems to have been composed by brigades from the Palestinian Liberation Army[10] and as-Sa'iqa, as well as other militias including Fatah. Some sources also mention the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Muslim Lebanese al-Murabitun militia among the attackers. There are also reports that mercenaries or militiamen from Syria, Jordan, Libya, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan were part of the assault, and even Japanese commandos who were training in Lebanon.[11]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Armies in Lebanon, 1985, Osprey Publishing
  2. ^ Fisk, 2001, pp. 99-100.
  3. ^ Abraham, 1996, p. 33.
  4. ^ Nisan, 2003, p. 25.
  5. ^ Elie Hobeika killer file
  6. ^ . http://justworldnews.org/archives/000976.html
  7. ^ Friedman, 1998, p. 161.
  8. ^ Friedman, New York Times, Sep 20, 21, 26, 27, 1982.
  9. ^ Lebanese War Chronology - 1976 on 111101.net. Accessed 18 September 2006.
  10. ^ Some sources name the PLA's Ayn Jalout brigade armed by Egypt and the Qadisiyah brigade from Iraq. This page also mentions the Yarmouk brigade, set up by Syria.
  11. ^ Nisan, 2003, p. 41.

[edit] References

  • Abraham, A. J. (1996). The Lebanon War. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0-275-95389-0
  • Fisk, Robert. (2001). Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280130-9
  • Friedman, Thomas. (1998) From Beirut To Jerusalem. 2nd Edition. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-653070-2
  • Nisan, M. (2003). The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-5392-6.

[edit] Further reading

  • Becker, Jillian. (1985). The PLO: The Rise and Fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization . New York: St. Martin's Press ISBN 0-312-59379-1

[edit] See also

[edit] External links