7 févr. 1978 - Events of 7 February

Description:

After a series of bomb attacks that rocked Beirut on early February 1978, the ADF stepped up its security measures by increasing the number of patrols and checkpoints in the streets. On the 7th, Lebanese soldiers belonging to the Army of Free Lebanon (AFL) – a breakaway faction of the Lebanese Army led by the rightist dissident Colonel Antoine Barakat – objected to the ADF establishing a checkpoint near their HQ at the main Fayadieh barracks, a forteress-like military facility located in the namesake Christian district. The ADF detachment, which comprised twenty Syrian regular soldiers, refused to move out, causing an argument which ended with a shootout on which 19 people lost their lives. The Syrian soldiers were taken prisoner by the AFL regulars and held hostage at Fayadieh barracks, and the situation grew tenser that dawn when the bodies of two slain Christians were found nearby.