Lebanon (country)

Syria was widely accused of complicity in the assassination in a car bomb attack of the former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri on February 14, 2005. Massive protest demonstrations were held in the Lebanese capital demanding Syrian withdrawal from the country. Counter-demonstrations in favour of Syria were organized by Hezbollah. At the end of month the Lebanese government resigned, only to be re-appointed a fortnight later by President Lahoud. Also in March, Syrian leader President Bashar al-Assad, under international diplomatic pressure, invited Lahoud to Damascus, where he announced that Syria had agreed to withdraw its forces (some 14,000) as far as the Bekaa Valley; the Syrian departure from Lebanon was completed in April. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Karami failed to form a new government and Najib Mikati was appointed as prime minister—he paid an early official visit to Damascus to visit his opposite number there.

At the end of May Lebanon began the month-long process of electing a new legislature. The anti-Syrian opposition bloc, led by the son of Rafik al-Hariri, Saad, in alliance with the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, was pitched against the traditionally pro-Syrian Shia movements Amal and Hezbollah, as well as a coalition formed around the once anti-Syrian Maronite Christian Michel Aoun. While Amal and Hezbollah dominated the south of Lebanon, the anti-Syrian opposition eventually won 72 out of the 128 seats in the Lebanese legislature, enabling it to form a government. At the end of June the former finance minister Fouad Siniora was nominated as the new prime minister of Lebanon.

On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon abducted two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. The action was described by Israeli Prime Minister Olmert as “an act of war” and Israeli forces launched a combined land-sea-air offensive on targets in Lebanon. Warplanes bombed Hezbollah strongholds in the south of the country, destroying the organization’s headquarters. Israeli air raids attacked Beirut’s airport and major routes while a naval blockade prevented shipping from entering or leaving the port. In Beirut there was heavy loss of life and widespread destruction of the city’s buildings and infrastructure. As an international crisis developed, thousands of foreign nationals were evacuated from the war zone.

The attacks soon spread to other Lebanese cities, including Tripoli, Baalbek, Tyre, and Sidon. Meanwhile, Hezbollah responded with rocket attacks on northern Israeli cities, including Haifa. Israeli troops then began incursions into southern Lebanon.

After four weeks of fighting and bombing more than 900 Lebanese nationals had been killed, with thousands more wounded and an estimated half a million displaced. The UN's emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, commented on the large scale of the destruction, and its indiscriminate nature, calling it a violation of humanitarian law, while other international observers condemned the “disproportionate” use of force employed by the Israeli military as its attacks killed many civilians. A proposed UN resolution called for an immediate ceasefire and for a peacekeeping force to be installed in southern Lebanon.