October 13, 1990 at 7:00 am

1975-1976 Tel el Zaatar 1976 1977-1981 1982 1983-1984 1985-1987 1988-1990 13 Oct 1990

 

October 13, 1990 at 7:00 a.m, The Syrian Forces invaded the Eastern areas which support the Lebanese Army under heavy air strikes (the only instance where Syria was able to fly its air force over Lebanese space without drawing the Israelis) Soukhoi fighter bombers against the Palace and the Ministry of Defence.

Artillery shelling and rocket launching, using 130mm, 160mm, 240mm and Grade. more than 10,000 shells in 4 hours 

Presidential Palace before the air strike 

More than 300 tanks attacked the Christian region. Both the people and the army attempted to resist this onslaught but the Syrians were able to take over the area committing massacres in Dahr El Wahsh, Souk El Gharb, Bsous, Hadeth and Beit Mery, massacres that left hundreds of people dead and many more injured. 

At 10:00 a.m. the Syrians enter the Palace but despite this, many units of the Lebanese Army initially refuse to surrender and heavy fighting continues. 

For three days the Syrians proceeded to steal what they could find inside the defense ministry, such as archives, equipment, computers, maps, and strategic historic information, which they transported to Syria. 

The fall of Baabda. Syrians Army Entered Baabda Palace

 

The Liberty Statue of Baabda Palace  

An estimated 700 people were killed by the Syrian invaders that day and 2000 had been injured.

 

At least 15 civilians were executed by Syrian soldiers in Bsous after having been rounded up from their homes

Syrian troops entering Hadath, 19 people, including three women, were reported to have been killed in cold blood in al-Hadath.

Syrian troops attacking from west beirut.

Lebanese Army Captured and taken to Syrian jails where they are still being held to this day.

 

It was also reported 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 disapeared.

 

The Syrians executed one of the officers, Emile Boutros, by forcing him to lay down on the road and then driving a tank over him.

Syrian army raising the Lebanese flag as if they are Lebanese army

Syrian troops driving Lebanese youth to Syrian jails

 

Soldiers of the Lebanese army are prisoners of the Syrian army and deported to Syrian prisons.

 

 

 

The Syrians Army liquidated the Sayah family in the village of Bsous.

Coletter Sayah, aged 18, awoke one morning to the noise of Syrian airplanes. The Sayah family hastened to take shelter in a ground floor room. Shortly before 8 AM, Colette heard the first bursts of an automatic and the rumble of tanks in the village streets.
Outside, men were shouting: "Out! Out! You dogs, you!"
One by one, the members of the Sayah family left their shelter. In the street, in the house, there were many tens of Syrian soldiers. They took away Colette, her mother and her aunts into an adjoining building under construction. They'd barely arrived there when they heard a series of shots. ====>>>>
 


 

The Syrians had just killed all the men of the family. The father and a cousin with a bullet in their heads, one of the brothers was shot through his heart. Another brother was still breathing. Colette asked them to call an ambulance, but the Syrians preferred that the boy die. He will die in his sister's arms. Emile and Joseph, the two uncles, were executed in a staircase. The corpses will lie in the middle of the road until evening, surrounded by a humming cloud of flies and bees.

 

 

The massacre of Dahr al Wahch

By the Syrian Forces  ===>>>

The people of the village of Dahr al Wahch saw Syrian soldiers push a column of Lebanese prisoners who were walking in their shorts towards some unknown destination. A nun, a nurse at the governmental hospital of Baabda, saw the arrival of corpses and of the Red Cross ambulances. "I counted between 75 and 80, she explained. Most of them had a bullet in the back of their heads or in their mouth. The corpses still carried the mark of cords around their wrists." The rigidity of the corpses fixed their crossed arms behind their backs. They were naked, wearing only shorts. Some ten of them had their eyes gouged out, another ten had an arm or leg cut off. All had been shot in their heads. There can be no doubt about their execution.
 

Syrian troops at the Presidential Palace at Baabda.

 

Estimates of the Lebanese Army losses during the battle, who where executed by the Syrians and who where captured then sent to the Syrian prisons and never came back to Lebanon ranges between 400 & 500

Around the Presidential Palace another 51 Lebanese Army soldiers were stripped and excecuted.

 

Estimates of Syrian losses about 600 but some reports said that more than 2000 died most from the Syrian fire while they where firing at the front line and many troops have passed the front line. In the battle that followed and it seems that the 102nd fought on until their ammunition ran out refusing to let Dahr el-Wahesh, which overlooks the Palace, fall into Syrian hands, reports said during this battle in Dahr el wahesh syrian forces lost many of their soldiers more than 150 . Later that afternoon some 80 bodies of soldiers of the 102nd would be brought to a Baabda mortuary, most had their hands tied behind their backs and had been shot in the back of the head.

Father Suleiman Abu Khalil and Father Albert Sherfan,

Two priests, also ''disappeared'' during the events of 13 October 1990. Father Albert Sherfan was the head of the Deir al-Qalaa Monastery in Beit Meri and Father Suleiman was the treasurer. On 13 October 1990 it was reported that the Syrian forces took up a position near the monastery, after a long battle which claimed the lives of 25 Syrian soldiers, because of its strategic position overlooking the Metn districts and other areas. These two priests, who had not been killed in the battle, ''disappeared'' on the same day together with some soldiers of the Lebanese army who had apparently taken refuge in the monastery. The brother of Father Suleiman Abu Khalil recalls:

=====>>>>>

''On 13 October 1990 the monastery was occupied by the Syrian forces. I tried to obtain an authorization to go and see Suleiman but I couldn't. At about 10am a Syrian officer asked to enter the monastery to have a drink of water. Father Suleiman appeared at the balcony and at the same time another monk came out to see what was happening. The Syrians apparently were surprised to see that there was more than one monk in the monastery and became suspicious that people might be hiding there. Accordingly, the Syrian officers rang all the Lebanese authorities they could reach to allow them to enter and search the monastery. When they went in they found Lebanese soldiers in civilian clothes. They arrested everyone they found and took them away, the soldiers in a lorry and the two monks in a Range Rover. All were taken first to Anjar and then to Far Falastin in Damascus. We contacted a lot of people to intervene on their behalf but all our efforts came to nothing.''

 

1975-1976 Tel el Zaatar 1976 1977-1981 1982 1983-1984 1985-1987 1988-1990 13 Oct 1990

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