October 13 massacre

{{Cleanup|date=March 2007}} The '''October 13 Massacre''' took place on October 13, 1990, during the final moments of the [[Lebanese Civil War]]. == Background == {{Unreferenced section|date=October 2006}} After months of skirmishes, the [[Military of Syria|Syrian Army]] and Lebanese militias then aligned with [[Damascus]] (mainly the [[Progressive Socialist Party]], the [[Lebanese Forces]], and the [[Amal movement]]) stormed the holdout of the military government of East Beirut, led by [[Gen.]] [[Michel Aoun]], who had declared a "War of Liberation" against [[Syria]] earlier during the year. Aoun's forces were headquartered around the Presidential Palace in Ba'bda, [[Beirut]]. The Aounist areas were quickly overrun. While the main confrontation was clearly a military one, the attackers afterwards in many instances turned to plundering, and tens of Aounist army soldiers and civilians were summarily executed by Syrian forces or the militias, as they cemented their hold on the capital. The attack on the Aoun government marks the end of the Lebanese Civil War. Syria would [[Syrian occupation of Lebanon|dominate]] the political life of the country for the following 15 years, under the auspices of the [[Taif Agreement]]. == Death count == * [http://www.liberty05.com/civilwar/civil5.html Lebanese Civil war October 13, 1990 at 7:00 a.m] The Syrian Forces invaded the Eastern areas which support the Lebanese Army. An estimated 700 people were killed by the Syrian invaders that day and 2000 had been injured. Estimates of the Lebanese Army losses during the battle, of whom some were executed by the Syrians and including Prisoners of War as between 400 to 500 soldiers. It was also reported{{Citation needed|date=October 2007}} 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 disappeared. The Syrians Army liquidated the Sayah family in the village of Bsous. At least 15 civilians were executed by Syrian soldiers in Bsous after having been rounded up from their homes. One hospital "received 73 bodies of Lebanese army soldiers, each executed at close range with a bullet in the lower right side of the skull" and that 15 civilians were killed by the Syrians in the Bsus. He also connects the killing of [[National Liberal Party (Lebanon)|National Liberal Party]] (NLP) leader [[Danny Chamoun]] to Syria. ==External links== *[http://www.liberty05.com/civilwar/civil5.html Pictures from the Lebanese Civil War October 13] More than 300 tanks attacked the Christian region in Mount Lebanon and Beirut. == Literature == * William Harris, ''Faces of Lebanon. Sects, Wars, and Global Extensions'' (Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, USA 1996) {{coord missing|Lebanon}}