Date 13 October 1990 | Location Beirut, Lebanon | |
Target Lebanese Army elements of East Beirut Attack type Military operations and Execution Deaths 500-700 killed during the fighting
Additionally at least 240 unarmed prisoners executed, including civilians Perpetrators Syrian Army, Hafez al-Assad Similar Lebanese Civil War, Battle of the Hotels, Battle of Zahleh, Black Saturday, Karantina massacre | ||
The October 13 Massacre took place on 13 October 1990, during the final period of the Lebanese Civil War, when hundreds of Lebanese Army soldiers were executed after they surrendered to the Syrian Army.
Contents
International Support
For the first time since the 1982 air battle, the Syrian Air force jets were allowed to enter the Lebanese air space in order to strike General Aoun military forces. Seven soviet made Sukhoi Su-24 jets were used in this operation. An international green light was given to Hafez al-Assad to invade Lebanon, since he promised to assist in the Gulf War with about 10,000 soldiers and 200 tanks.
Background
After months of skirmishes, the Syrian Army and Lebanese militias then aligned with Damascus (mainly the Progressive Socialist Party and the Amal movement) backed up by Lebanese Forces artillery stormed the holdout of the military government of East Beirut, led by Gen. Michel Aoun, who had declared a ref"War of Liberation" against Syria earlier during the year, and had just escaped a mysterious assassination attempt the previous day. Aoun's forces were headquartered around the Presidential Palace in Baabda, 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 Army soldiers 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 dominate the political life of the country for the following 15 years, under the auspices of the Taif Agreement.
Death count
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. One may also implement the killing of National Liberal Party (NLP) leader Danny Chamoun, which occurred a couple of days later, to the same wave.