January 17, 1988 A 'Puma' crashes in the sea next to the Bouar coast with its captain Georges Sadaka on board and his co-pilot Jean Azzi. The search for the two bodies was unsuccessful.

February 12, 1988 An explosive charge of 880 grs of TNT is found and diffused in the airplane that has to transport President Gemayel to Sanaa.

April 6, 1988 Following combats between Amal and Hezbollah, Nabatiyeh falls in the hands of Amal militiamen.

April 24, 1988 The northern Lebanon capital, Tripoli, is mourning because of a strong explosive charge that killed 66 and injured 26.

May 11, 1988 Iran and Syria sponsored a seven-point agreement destined to consolidate the end of combats in the southern suburbs that made, in 6 days, 157 death and 666 injured. The agreement was revised a few days later.

May 27, 1988 Syrians deploy in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

May 30, 1988 A car bomb explodes in the region of Rmeil, killing 15 and injuring 61.

September 8, 1988 The deputy of Jezzine, Farid Serhal is kidnapped at a P.S.P. checkpoint in Ouzai and driven to the Bristol Hotel.

September 13, 1988 Fire exchanges between units of the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Forces in Sin-el-Fil and Mkalles killed one militiaman and injured another one.

September 20, 1988 A car bomb explodes in Dora killing 3 and injuring 37 including the outgoing Minister of Information, Joseph Skaff.

September 22, 1988 A few minutes before the expiration of his mandate, President Amine Gemayel named the Maronite commander of the army, general Michel Aoun, Prime Minister of a military government.

Geagea was not happy for this decision. According to the constitution, the ministers' council takes over the executive power in case of a vacancy of the presidency. However, the three Muslim Ministers withdraw immediately.

September 23, 1988 General Aoun and Selim Hoss were fighting for the international recognition. The country was from now on divided in two regions run respectively in the 'East' by general Aoun and in the 'West' by Selim Hoss.

October 4, 1988 The Lebanese Forces announced an agreement on the unification of the forces in the East and took for the first time since 1975 control of the Northern Metn (barracks, offices, military positions), region considered as the fief of the former president Amine Gemayel.

November 7, 1988 General Antoine Lahd, Chief of the 'Army of Southern Lebanon', escapes an assassination attempt. The killer, a communist militant (Souha Bechara) is arrested.

November 25, 1988 West Beirut was the stage of a fresh outbreak of combats between Amal militiamen and the Hezbollah, despite the Syrian army presence.

December 2, 1988 General Aoun orders the closure of the Museum-Berbir junction; the passage will be re-opened 17 days later.

December 7, 1988 On the fifth day of a blockade imposed by the closure of the Museum-Berbir junction, the only supply road for fuel and food products, the bank of Lebanon gives up to the pressures and unfreezes credits for the West Beirut sector for direct importation of flour.

January 8, 1989 After the fightings in Beirut, the Amal movement and the Hezbollah continue their bloody fightings in the Iqlim-el-Touffah.

February 10, 1989 Confrontations are taking place between the Lebanese Army and the Lebanese Forces in Jdeideh.

February 14, 1989 New confrontations between the army and the L.F. were taking place in Monteverde and next to the Justice Palace in Beirut, which created a general mobilization on both sides.
  

Geagea was the head of LF

Clashes started between Lebanese Forces and Lebanese Army

February 20, 1989 A meeting between General Aoun, Chief Commander of the Army, and Samir Geagea Chief of the L.F., takes place in Baabda. The goal of this meeting is to eliminate the differences between them.

February 23, 1989 The fifth basin of Beirut harbor, controlled by the L.F. is closed and the tax checkpoints of Berbara are dismantled.

March 14, 1989 Fire exchanges in Souk-el-Gharb had to end up in an explosion. Intensive bombardments of the residential areas, the airport, and the port made 32 deaths and 145 injured.
April 16, 1989 The Spanish Ambassador in Lebanon, Don Pedro Manuel de Aristegui, dies in his Hadeth residence hit by a 240 mm shell. His father in law, the great Lebanese writer Toufic Aouad, as well as his sister in law are among the victims.

The Syrian response was rapid: A shelling of the regions controlled by the Lebanese army, with an average of 6000 shells per day.

General Aoun declared:

 "The battle for liberating the land from the Syrians has begun."

The Lebanese Forces respond by sending all the troops under the control of Aoun same as for the LF media

The Syrian army used its heaviest Soviet-made artillery, Especially these equipped with 240 and 160 millimetres canons, to pound both the East and the West sides of Beirut, on March 14, 1989,Tens of Lebanese were killed in the onslaught especially in the UNESCO area. 

May 16, 1989 Mufti Hassan Khaled, the highest Sunniy-Muslem clerk in Lebanon, was assassinated by the Syrian intelligence services after he confronted the Syrian with the UNESCO massacre. The Mufti indicated that the Syrians are shelling both the Christian and Muslim sides of Beirut to instigate a religious conflict. An attack that killed 10 and injured 76 in Ayche Bakkar, in West Beirut.

A fierce battle happened in Souk El Garb and Daher El Wahsh 

Syrians shelling fuel of Dora region where a huge explosion of Gas destroyed dora, jedeideh area. 

Syrians shelling ships in the sea carrying fuel, food and Civilians

Oil Refinery Burning 

One of the Lebanese Army tank was hit

 In their wild shelling of the Lebanese population, the Syrian hit the residence of Mr. Pedro Manuel de Aristegui, Spanish Ambassador to Lebanon. Using 240 mm shell

The Syrian forces used for this fight totaled about 20,000 men who were under the command of Generals Gazi Kanaan and Ali Hammoud.  

Syrian attacked souk el gharb

On September 22, 1989, fighting stopped between Lebanese Army and the Syrians, 835 had been killed from Lebanese civilians, more than 4,000 had been wounded, and more than two thirds of Beirut's population of 1.5 million had fled the city.

September 27, 1989 Lakhdar Ibrahimi announces that the parliamentary meeting will take place in Taef (in Saudi Arabia) on September 30th.

October 15, 1989 In Taef, an agreement on the reforms was practically reached after few days of uncertainty. The only subject that had not been brought up was the withdrawal of the Syrian troops from the Lebanese territories.

October 22, 1989 58 deputies approve the final text of the compromise rejected by General Aoun.

November 4, 1989 At the last minute, the deputies decided not to return to Lebanon to meet with general Aoun. At 5 o'clock in the morning, Aoun decided to dissolve the Chamber and asked the members of parliament to adjourn their vote.

November 5, 1989 The 'dissolved' National Assembly met at the military base of Kleyate and elected Rene Moawad new President of the Republic. Angry demonstrators invaded the patriarchal office of Bkerke. The Patriarch took refuge in Dimane. He came back later at the request of General Aoun.

Syria appointed Rene Mouawad as a President of the areas it occupies in Lebanon. When Mouawad tried to conceal with the Lebanese constitutional government a big dispute grew between him and the Syrian officers.He was assassinated by blowing his car of 200 kg TNT in the area occupied by the Syrian troops in western Beirut on November 22, 1989.

November 24, 1989 Elias Hraoui is elected President of the Republic by an Assembly reunited at the Chtaura Park Hotel, on the eve of the National Funerals of the defunct President.

November 28, 1989 Several reports mentionned important Syrian movements towards the Eastern fronts. In response to General Aoun's call, thousands of Lebanese went to Baabda and watched the Palace day and night.

December 18, 1989 Over 300,000 persons participate in the 'flag walk' in the courtyard of the Presidential Palace in Baabda.

December 24, 1989 The two hours meeting between General Aoun and Samir Geagea seem to have pacified their relations

January 5, 1990 After having spent 43 days in the military casern of Ablah, President Elias Hraoui leaves the Bekaa and settles in Ramlet-el-Beida. The photographer of L'Orient-Le Jour and the Nahar, Georges Semerdjian dies while on the field.

Tension started between L. Forces and L. Army. The two groups that were best able to resist the Syrians were now fighting each other, and many soldiers on the opposing sides either knew each other or were even related and so refused to fight and simply went home.

January 31, 1990 Fights opposing the Lebanese Forces and General Aoun’s army were reported and deprived certain regions of electricity, phone, and water.

February 3, 1990 The army takes control of Dbayeh after a tough battle.

February 9, 1990 New dividing lines appeared in the Eastern region and the medias war raged. Hospitals suffered from a serious penury and the Lebanese continued to flee by thousands. That week, 417 were killed and 1,655 wounded.

February 11, 1990 The Kesrouan was now at the center of the Aoun-Geagea conflict. Despite all mediations and attempts to maintain the precarious truce, belligerents were fighting on the new front of Daraya, separating the Metn and the Kesrouan

From street to street, house to house, Fierce Battle took place in Ain el roumaneh, Sin El fill, Dora, Debayeh and Kalayaate. Aoun drove the LF out of its Ayn al-Rumana pocket in an artillery firestorm. For each of these assaults the army used about 1,000 men and 40 to 100 armoured vehicles.

February 15, 1990 Despite Mgr Sfeir's pathetic call, a blaze of fire hits the 'Christian country'. The army takes control of Ain el Remmaneh.

February 17, 1990 The Army evacuates 400 soldiers from the Adma base, surrounded for over two weeks. The evacuation takes place with the assistance of the Lebanese Red Cross.

March 14, 1990 Six weeks of inter-Christian fightings cost Lebanon over a third of its annual GNP and continue to paralyze the country's industrial heart.

March 30, 1990 The battle on the ground starts again with violence and reaches, besides regions of the Kesrouan, Achrafieh's neighborhoods.

April 3, 1990 The chief of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, joins President Hraoui, while General Michel Aoun turns to the Arab Troika. At the same time, the N.L.P. withdraws from the commandment of the Lebanese Forces.

April 18, 1990 A bus crossing the Museum passage with teachers and students onboard was shot at. The eleven passengers including the two students were burned alive.

May 8, 1990 General Aoun decides to close all the roads communicating with the regions controlled by the Lebanese Forces while the battle continues to rage.

June 3, 1990 A peaceful walk on the road of Nahr el Kalb, grouping religious personalities ends dramatically. Pierre Chbat, the L.B.C's cameraman, is killed.

 August 1, 1990, The Syrian forces surrounded the area controlled by the legitimate Lebanese government to bring down the transitional government. Demonstration in front of the Presidential Palace in Baabda. 

The fighting continued and over 900 people died and over 3,000 were wounded during these battles called the 'War of Elimination' by Samir Geagea.

Lebanese forces sending food and weapons from Kesrouwan to Karantina

This war weakened the Christian  forces  in Lebanon.

September 27, 1990 The blockade against the Eastern region gets tougher and tougher. The goal is proclaimed: force General Aoun to give up before schools reopen.

October 1, 1990 A pacific demonstration in favor of General Aoun on the bridge of Nahr-el-Mot, ends by a slaughter: 12 deaths and 50 wounded all civilians.

October 11, 1990 Last minute efforts were deployed to avoid a military operation against Baabda and the Eastern regions controlled by General Aoun. Besides, a two kilometers long peace walk on the Kfarchima-Choueifat road grouped 1,000 persons protesting against the blockade.