A savage new siege
Down the mean streets of Beirut and across the green mountains to the east, the guns of Lebanon sounded once again last week. In the fiercest fighting since 1978, Syrian peace-keeping forces and Lebanese Christian militiamen squared off for control of Zahle (pop. 200,000), a city in the Bekaa Valley, 25 miles east of Beirut. For eight days the Syrian forces, using field artillery, tank guns and rocket launchers, pounded Christian positions in and around the city, which is located just off the strategic Beirut-Damascus highway. Christian militiamen in...
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