Lebanese Civil War

Lebanon's fifteen-year civil war was one of the most brutal and complex conflicts of the twentieth century, pitting Christian Maronites against Palestinian guerrillas, Druze militias, Shia movements, and eventually drawing in Syria, Israel, and the United States. Beginning with a bus massacre in April 1975, the war divided Beirut along a fortified 'Green Line,' produced the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the bombing of the US Marine barracks, and a decade of car bombs and hostage-taking. It ended only with the Taif Agreement in 1989 and left Lebanon under Syrian dominance, Hezbollah entrenched in the south, and roughly 150,000 dead.