home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- WORLD, Page 43World NotesLEBANONThe Terrible Tally of Death
-
-
- During 15 years of brutal civil war among religious and
- political clans, fought mainly by Christian and Muslim
- militiamen, Beirut became a synonym for savagery. Last week for
- the first time authorities put out an official estimate of the
- rivers of blood spilled through Lebanon and its 3.4 million
- population. The casualty toll, largely civilian: 144,240 people
- slain, 197,506 wounded and 17,415 missing. Most of the missing
- persons were abducted by rival militias, and are now presumed
- dead.
-
- The report also counted 3,641 car bombs, which killed
- 4,386 people. The toll includes 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French
- paratroopers who died in nearly simultaneous truck bombings in
- 1983. The Lebanese conflict, which ended in 1990 when Syrian
- forces crushed Christian General Michel Aoun and an Arab
- League-mediated peace accord took hold, claimed more than twice
- the number of lives lost by both sides in the five major
- Arab-Israeli wars since 1948.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-