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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Lebanon
Index
The 1979 Iranian Revolution galvanized Lebanon's Shia community
and inspired in it a new militancy. Iran sought to export Shia
revolution throughout the Middle East, and in doing so it provided
material support to an Amal terrorist campaign. From 1979 until the
1982 Israeli invasion, Shia terrorists hijacked six airliners,
attempted to bomb several others, assassinated the French
ambassador to Lebanon, blew up the French and Iraqi embassies, and
committed numerous other violent acts.
The Israeli invasion served as a catalyst for a further upsurge
in Shia militancy. In July 1982 Iran dispatched an expeditionary
force of volunteer Pasdaran Revolutionary Guards to Lebanon,
ostensibly to fight Israeli invaders. The approximately 650
Pasdaran established their headquarters in the city of Baalbek in
the Syrian-controlled Biqa Valley. There they conducted terrorist
and guerrilla training, disbursed military matériel and money, and
disseminated propaganda.
The political fission that characterized Lebanese politics also
afflicted the Shia movement, as groups split off from Amal. Husayn
al Musawi, a former Amal lieutenant, entered into an alliance with
the Revolutionary Guard and established Islamic Amal. Other Shia
groups included Hizballah (Party of God), Jundallah (Soldiers of
God), the Husayn Suicide Commandos, the Dawah (Call) Party, and the
notorious Islamic Jihad Organization, reportedly headed by Imad
Mughniyyah
(see Internal Security and Terrorism
, this ch.).
Data as of December 1987
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