On February 17, 1988, while on his way back from a meeting with a local Amal official, American colonel
William R. Higgins, who was heading a United Nations observers' mission, was captured by Hezbollah men on a coastal road in South Lebanon. Earlier this month, they also kidnapped, but eventually released, two
UNRWA workers in an area controlled by Amal near
Sidon. Nabih Berri considered Hezbollah's actions a territorial breach, and ordered an extensive search and rescue operation in
Iqlim al-Tuffah following the Higgins incident. Hezbollah, while backing his captors' demands, denied any responsibility for the kidnapping. When Amal's operation spread to villages in the region which Hezbollah controlled, carrying out a series of arrests and home to home inspections, the latter responded by killing a Lebanese Army officer associated with Amal, and by attacking an Amal checkpoint on the outskirts of the village of
Harouf in the Jabal Amel region.
Fighting in Nabatieh and Ghazieh During the early stages of an Amal offensive on April 5, 1988, Hezbollah managed to occupy
Nabatieh and the surrounding villages. It seized Amal positions and offices in the town, as well as in
Ghazieh. In a counterattack, however, Amal retook Nabatieh. It proceeded to attack Hezbollah militants in Tyre and its surroundings, and took the conflict further south to
Siddikine. The fighting had gone uninterrupted, despite mediation attempts by a local imam in Nabatieh. Amal had retaken positions it had lost earlier in the fighting, in addition to the three villages of
Jebchit,
Doueir and
Zawtar, previously considered Hezbollah strongholds. The armed clashes were accompanied by
psychological warfare, through which Amal attempted to pressure its rival, with Berri associating his movement's military successes to broad public support. Amal declared victory over "extremism and political kidnapping" by mid-April, announcing an end to Hezbollah's military presence in the south, and expelled a number of its rival's clerics to the Beqaa. A high-level Iranian delegation headed by
Ahmad Jannati, which arrived in Lebanon earlier that month following the outbreak of violence, announced during a press conference on April 22 the creation of a five-member commission to solve the crisis that consisted of himself and representatives from Amal and Hezbollah. The commission, however, failed to convince the two sides to reach an agreement in regards to the presence of the
United Nations Interim Force (UNIFIL) in the country and disengagement from Israel, both of which Hezbollah opposed. Days after Jannati's conference, fighting re-erupted, but this time in the Beqaa Valley on April 26, and a Hezbollah fortification in the southern village of
Maydoum was raided by Israeli commandos on May 2. This pushed Hezbollah to seek further assistance from the IRGC.
Battle for southern Beirut In early May, 1988, two Amal members were killed at a Hezbollah-manned roadblock in southwest Beirut. The ensuing clashes saw defections from Amal, and led to Hezbollah's occupation of Amal positions in the neighborhoods of
Chyah and
Ghobeiry. Amal commenced a large offensive on May 6 against its rival in the southern Beirut suburbs of
Dahieh, overrunning Hezbollah positions in the neighborhood within the first 36 hours of fighting. The following day, however, a large combined Hezbollah-IRGC force, the latter assembling from the Beqaa Valley, penetrated the suburbs without being detected by Syrian troops. They rapidly advanced on Amal positions in a carefully planned offensive. An intervention by the Iranian Embassy established a 16-hour ceasefire that night, before which Hezbollah had occupied key positions in the area. Fighting was renewed the following afternoon, and persisted on a daily basis for the next few days, with intermittent ceasefire attempts. Syrian colonel
Ghazi Kanaan, backed by Berri, proposed the deployment of Syrian troops in south Beirut to enforce a ceasefire. On May 11, Amal fighters were cornered in the western edge of the suburbs, having lost their headquarters in
Bourj el-Barajneh to Hezbollah, and were left in control of only Chyah and parts of Ghobeiry. Hezbollah, on the other hand, had occupied about 80% of the suburbs, including the districts of Hayy Ma'adi, Haret Hreik, Bir al-Abed and Hayy Muawwad. By this day, up to 150 people had been killed and hundreds more were wounded. Representatives from Syria, Iran, Amal and Hezbollah convened at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut and formed the Quadripartite Committee that day, aiming to put an end to the conflict. They formulated a ceasefire, and a joint security force involving Syrian troops, the IRGC and fighters from both Amal and Hezbollah started patrolling the suburbs on May 12 as part of the agreement's terms. The ceasefire, however, collapsed 48 hours later. Opposition by Syria and Amal to the renewal of Hezbollah's pre-April presence in South Lebanon played a role in its failure to materialize. On May 13, Hezbollah began an offensive that pushed Amal fighters southward to the outer perimeter of the suburbs, occupying the district of Awzai. As they reached the main road connecting the capital to Beirut International Airport, they clashed with a Syrian military contingent that was manning a checkpoint there, resulting in the deaths of five Hezbollah fighters and a Syrian soldier. Iranian deputy foreign minister
Hossein Sheikholeslam met that day with Syrian brigadier
Ali Hammoud, who had threatened to "eradicate any militia presence" in the areas under Syrian control, in response to the incident. They both agreed upon another ceasefire, which broke down two days later on May 15. A seventh ceasefire came into effect the following night, but it foundered like the ones before it, and clashes were renewed on May 17. Hezbollah now controlled up to 90% of the suburbs, and about 250 people had been killed since the fighting began. The Syrian government was already considering taking matters into its own hands and had deployed between 5,000 and 7,000 troops to West Beirut who, by May 18, were told by their superiors that it was only a question of time before they marched on Dahieh. Hezbollah warned that Western hostages held in the suburbs would be killed should Syrian troops enter the area, while Berri was lobbying for Syria's Assad to intervene. Iran, fearing an armed confrontation between Syria and Hezbollah, intensified its diplomatic efforts to delay the planned Syrian intervention. Another ceasefire agreement was reached by the Quadripartite Committee on May 21, and the fighting diminished. There was disagreement by Syrian and Amal representatives during the following negotiations in regards to an Iranian proposal, backed by Hezbollah, to establish a joint Syrian-Iranian peacekeeping force rather than a primarily Syrian one. There was also uncertainty over the issue of Hezbollah's re-establishment in South Lebanon. Fighting resumed on May 24, and Amal had lost its remaining possessions in Ghobeiry, retaining solely the district of Chyah in south Beirut. The following day, however, Assad and leading Hezbollah representatives reached an agreement in the Syrian port city of
Latakia which allowed for a Syrian military deployment in the suburbs. Fighters from both sides were to withdraw from the streets and retreat to specific positions throughout the suburbs, and both factions were allowed to keep their offices. The death toll had so far reached 300. Syrian troops entered the neighborhood on May 27 at 11 a.m., before which fighters had disappeared from the streets. The first phase of the deployment involved 800 Syrian soldiers and 100 Lebanese
gendarmes, while the second one involved 3,500 Syrian troops. On June 1, both Hezbollah and Amal agreed to exchange 200 and 58 detainees respectively. The fighting caused extensive damage to property in the suburbs, in addition to the displacement of up to 400,000 inhabitants.
Intermittent violence and propaganda The exchange of propagandist accusations never ceased. On May 29, 1988, Amal publicized claims, citing its interrogation of Hezbollah captives, that its rival collaborated with Christian war factions, namely the
Lebanese Forces (LF), during the clashes. Hezbollah quickly denied the accusation but confirmed that some of its members were still in captivity. It accused Amal of employing torture and of trying to undermine the Islamic resistance. There were spillover confrontations between the two in the Beqaa Valley both during the Beirut fighting and two months later in July. The Beqaa clashes drew two local families in the region on a collision course, as each was backing one of the warring factions. On 13 August a Hizbollah leader, Sheikh Ali Krayyim, was assassinated at an Amal checkpoint in South Lebanon. Further disagreements over a number of issues during the mediation attempts were accompanied by occasional skirmishes, kidnappings and executions, which began to intensify in September that year. In early October, three Amal leaders were assassinated in a Hizbollah ambush in southern Beirut. The killing of the three, Daoud Daoud commander in the
Tyre area, Mahmud Faqin commander in
Nabatiya and Hassan Sbaiti, was a significant loss for Amal’s forces in the south of Lebanon. Amal responded by expelling Hezbollah affiliates and their families from its territory. It identified three individuals whom it accused of being involved in the assassinations, and demanded they be handed over to Syrian authorities. The situation escalated in mid-October, despite attempts by Hezbollah to blame a third party. Clashes erupted in the Chyah district and in the Beqaa. The Beirut conflict intensified the following month, leaving 30 fatalities, following a car bombing which almost killed four leading Hezbollah officials on November 21, including Subhi al-Tufayli. The confrontations, for the first time since 1987, spread to Syrian-controlled parts of West Beirut and to the
Ras Beirut district. Syrian troops ended the fighting by disarming units from both sides. In May 1988 the
Amal militia attacked
Hizbollah forces in
Siddikine in the South. After three days of fighting, in which fifty were killed, the Amal fighters succeeded in taking the village. At the time it had been Hizbollah’s last stronghold in Southern Lebanon. Amal, later fearing a southward expansion by Hezbollah in the direction of Nabatieh, made a number of political moves, aiming to secure its other fronts in order to concentrate efforts on Hezbollah. Such moves included the signing of a peace agreement on December 22 with Arafat's
Fatah movement, the PLO's leading faction, which was based in the Sidon region. Berri also worked to improve Amal's relations with clans in the Beqaa for the same purpose.
Iqlim al-Tuffah war Clashes re-erupted on December 31, 1988, at 3:30 p.m., until the intervention of a joint security committee two hours later, in the southern Chyah district of Beirut, as well as in the areas of Rawdat al-Shahidain, Abdel Karim al-Khalil and parts of Ghobeiry. Hundreds of families have fled the suburbs to West Beirut. The fighting later spread to Iqlim al-Tuffah in South Lebanon on January 2, 1989. It also spread to Beirut's downtown and the Khandaq al-Ghamiq district, two Syrian-controlled parts of West Beirut, on January 7. Clashes lasted for three hours there before Syrian troops intervened. The conflict was, by then, centered in Beirut. There were still occasional clashes in the Iqlim, however. On January 6, Amal accused its rival of shelling a house in Jbaa, while Hezbollah accused Amal of pounding its positions in Luwayza and Jabal Safi. Hezbollah blamed the violence on Amal and said that it had repelled a two-way assault by the latter on Nabi Safi. On January 8, 1989, Hezbollah concentrated its presence in
Jabal Safi, a hilly region located between the territories controlled by Amal and the Israeli-backed
South Lebanon Army (SLA), forming a
pocket there. It then launched a surprise offensive westward on Amal positions in
Jbaa and its surroundings in the Iqlim, capturing the town, along with Kfar Fila, Kfar Melki and Kfar Heta. Amal counterattacked that night in
Kfar Fila, and clashes ended the following morning on January 9, when it managed to retake the town following violent confrontations there between 7 and 10 a.m., during which hand grenades and melee weapons were used. The movement started conducting house-to-house raids in search of remaining Hezbollah elements in Kfar Fila after recapturing it. Its forces had done the same earlier in the villages of Kfar Heta and Kfar Melki, following Hezbollah's retreat from them and from the village of Mjaydal. A Lebanese security delegation visiting those villages noted in its report that it had found dozens of bodies along the streets there, and that the town of Kfar Fila was being shelled intermittently by Hezbollah artillery installations in Luwayza, Ain Bouswar and Jabal Safi. A group of women rallied in protest against the violence in Kfar Heta, and a
general strike took place throughout South Lebanon, which was ordered by Amal's regional command in solidarity with the victims. Following the earlier battle in Kfar Fila, Amal forces later marched on the town of Jbaa from Ain Qana, and on
Ain Bouswar. The movement had mobilized 300 militiamen in Tyre to reinforce its counteroffensive in the Iqlim. It said it had surrounded Hezbollah elements in a section of Jbaa that it claimed to have reoccupied there, following clashes that began at 9:30 a.m. on the outskirts of the town from the side overlooking Ain Qana. Amal then gathered more than 1,000 fighters to reinforce its positions, while Hezbollah brought 500 from the Beqaa. Armed militiamen were present on the entrances of villages and towns throughout the
Nabatieh region, and masked men were detaining Hezbollah affiliates at roadblocks in the conflict zone and in Tyre. 20,000 refugees had moved from Iqlim al-Tuffah to either Sidon or further south, and at least 51 people were killed during these two days. Among those killed were a senior Amal official, former head of Nabi Berri’s bodyguard, along with ten people in his entourage, including relatives and bodyguards. The fighting escalated in Jbaa on January 10 at around 11:30 a.m., as well as on the outskirts of Ain Bouswar. Amal deployed a relief force of about 500 fighters in the region encompassing Luwayza, Nabi Safi and Ain Bouswar, cutting off Hezbollah supply routes to the area. The battles saw the use of heavy artillery weapons. Hezbollah announced that it had repelled an Amal offensive on Ain Bouswar, and that the town was being shelled, along with Jbaa, from Amal positions in the villages of Sarba and Al-Zahrani. Ten Amal members who were killed during earlier clashes were buried in Kfar Heta that day, and the funeral procession was accompanied by a pro-Amal demonstration. On January 11, Amal launched a series of raids throughout the
Tyre region, where the movement reportedly found a weapons depot belonging to Hezbollah in the village of Maaroub, and in the
Bint Jbeil region, amid continuing skirmishes in the Iqlim. The following day, Amal launched an unsuccessful offensive on Jbaa, which failed to break through Hezbollah's defenses. Backed by rockets and artillery strikes from
launchers stationed in Zefta, Arabsalim, Marwania and Houmine al-Fawqa, about 600 Amal fighters participated in the offensive, and made no significant territorial gains. Hezbollah, which was still controlling the entrance to Jbaa overlooking Kfar Fila, said it had repelled the offensive. The conflict had been centered around Jbaa during the next two days, with some clashes occurring in Ain Bouswar and
sniper shots targeting Kfar Fila from Jbaa. Shiite
mufti Abdul Amir Qabalan proposed a plan for disengagement on January 13. His terms, which included a return to the
status quo that existed prior the Iqlim war, were welcomed by Berri and by
Mohammad Mehdi Shamseddine, president of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council (SISC). Hezbollah's Tufayli and Musawi said they had welcomed the proposal in theory but sought guarantees that they would be allowed to pursue resistance operations against Israel. Another general strike, organized by Amal, took place that day and involved different parts of Lebanon, including the south, the Dahieh suburb of Beirut and the Beqaa, condemning the events of "Black Saturday" and other "massacres" which it accused Hezbollah of having committed earlier that month. By January 16, the conflict had been limited to relatively minor exchanges over the front lines that were drawn during the previous Iqlim fighting. Both Amal and Hezbollah disengaged for a period of time, as part of an unofficial ceasefire, to allow members of the
Red Cross in and out of the war zone. They organized funeral processions for their dead in Tyre and Dahieh respectively, which were accompanied by solidarity demonstrations. Both sides engaged in a war of accusations over the following days, accompanied by renewed clashes on January 17 shortly after the Red Cross left the area. Amal blamed the escalation on Hezbollah, and said that it had repelled an assault by the latter when it took advantage of Israeli artillery strikes on Amal's positions in Jarjouh, an event which Hezbollah flatly denied. On January 19, Amal struck Hezbollah positions in Jabal Safi from Sarba, and clashes took place on the Kfar Fila-Jbaa and Jarjouh-Ain Bouswar front lines, as well as in Beirut's Dahieh. Clashes were renewed on the night of January 22 while talks were underway in Damascus to end the conflict, following two days of relative calm in Dahieh and in the Iqlim. The situation escalated the following evening until the morning of January 24. Hezbollah said it had repelled an Amal offensive, backed by rocket and artillery bombardment, on Jbaa. As part of the negotiations, Hezbollah said it would hand over the people responsible for the previous year's assassination of Amal's three commanders to Syrian authorities, on condition that it be allowed a strip of land in Amal territory from which it could launch armed assaults on Israeli and SLA targets, and that it be given a leading position in Amal's South Lebanon operations room. Those were some of the main points of contention during the meetings. A preliminary three-point agreement was reached in Damascus on January 25, which was announced by Syria and Iran, giving way to an official ceasefire arrangement. Until this moment, over 140 people had been killed in the January fighting. The ceasefire collapsed hours later, however, when both sides re-engaged in fighting over Jbaa that same day. The exchange of rocket and cannon fire intensified after 1:30 p.m., when Amal fired upon Jbaa and Ain Bouswar using 122mm and 130mm long-distance artillery weapons stationed in Sarba, Zefta and Marwania. Hezbollah retaliated by shelling Amal locations in Kfar Fila and Ain Qana. Fighting escalated in southern Beirut the following day around Amal's headquarters in Tahouitet al-Ghadir and in other parts of the suburbs. Amal blamed the Beirut escalation on Hezbollah. Both movements resumed the exchange of artillery fire in the Iqlim at 9:30 p.m., and reinforced their front lines there.
First Damascus Agreement On January 30, 1989, representatives from Amal and Hezbollah signed the Damascus Agreement, a day after Syrian and Iranian officials gathered in Damascus and composed a draft of the document, before summoning the leaders of the warring factions to the Syrian capital. The agreement was supervised by Syria's foreign minister,
Farouk al-Sharaa, and his Iranian counterpart,
Ali Akbar Velayati. Among its terms, other than the ceasefire, were the cessation of media hostilities between the two, the return to the pre-April 1988
status quo in South Lebanon before the expulsion of Hezbollah, the withdrawal of all militiamen from Jbaa and Ain Bouswar, the establishment of a common operations room to coordinate the "resistance" against Israel, and the allowance of the UNIFIL to operate freely in the country without being harassed. Two other main points were the recognition of Amal's responsibility for the security of South Lebanon, while allowing Hezbollah to resume political and social activities there, and the handing over of Dahieh, which was dominated by Hezbollah, to the Syrian-sponsored security plan for Beirut. Both sides also agreed to protect internationals working in Lebanon. As a result the
Red Cross resumed activities in Lebanon which it had suspended in December.
West Beirut clashes At 10 p.m. on the night of July 1, 1989, Amal and Hezbollah clashed once again in West Beirut, in the Khandaq al-Ghamiq and Zuqaq al-Blat districts. The fighting, the origins of which remained unclear, proceeded intermittently and gradually spread to other districts of Beirut, such as Msaytbeh. It quickly escalated the following morning at around 7:45 a.m., after six hours of relative calm. Both sides engaged in burning and looting of property along Lija Street and the Salim Salam Bridge. Syrian troops intervened in neighborhoods where the clashes hadn't spread yet, to prevent spill over fighting there. A joint security team, comprising Amal, Hezbollah and Syrian forces, started patrolling the conflict zone at 8:30 p.m. to enforce the Damascus ceasefire. Representatives from both sides later met with Syria's Ali Hammoud at his office in the Beau Rivage Hotel in Beirut, and announced their commitment to the ceasefire. On July 7, disagreement over the distribution of
Amal and
Al Ahed newspapers at a joint Amal-Hezbollah checkpoint in the Ouzai district of West Beirut resulted in street clashes which had spread by 2:30 p.m. to the Jnah and Bir Hassan districts. The fighting diminished an hour later following a Syrian Army deployment to the area, but flared once again at around 9 p.m. and later on spread to the areas surrounding the Iranian Embassy, near the road to the airport. Clashes resumed on July 8 at 9:25 p.m., and the following escalation resulted in serious damage to property, especially in Haret Hreik and the Iranian Embassy's surroundings. The situation remained tense and both sides were on high alert, despite joint diplomatic efforts in the Syrian capital to enforce the Damascus Agreement. Sniper shots in Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik during the early dawn hours of July 9 led to a re-escalation of fighting, with both sides clashing at the entrances of Dahieh with machine guns and artillery, almost isolating the suburbs from the rest of West Beirut. The fighting, which led to 9 deaths, was happening while Berri was on an official visit to Tehran. Amal said that it had conducted an offensive at around 3:30 p.m. to reclaim its Ouzai possessions that were lost two days earlier, accusing its rival of having started the fighting when Hezbollah elements infiltrated its territory in the area. The situation gradually calmed following the deployment of joint security committees in Ghobeiry and Hayy Farhat, which called for a ceasefire that evening. A Syrian Army contingent consisting of 300 soldiers deployed along the path from Ouzai to the main coastal road at around 8:45 p.m., and other forces stationed themselves in different conflict zones to separate the warring sides.
Beqaa battles spark new war in the south Violent clashes started in the
Western Beqaa on the night of December 3, 1989, at around 12 a.m., until a clear break from fighting took place from 7 to 9 a.m. the following morning, after which the violence re-escalated. Under the cover of repeated artillery shelling, both Amal and Hezbollah fighters raided each other's command centers in the towns of
Sohmor and
Machghara. By 2:30 p.m., Sohmor fell to Hezbollah following street battles there, where Amal's leading security official in the Western Beqaa was injured by an RPG strike on the movement's command center in the town. The Lebanese Army had set up checkpoints earlier at the entrances of Sohmor and
Yohmor. The latter town was taken over by Hezbollah with relatively no violence, when its militants entered the homes of Amal members and disarmed them. Then the fighting in Machghara intensified at around 4 p.m., where Amal managed to retain only a small pocket near the town's northern entrance. Most of the Western Beqaa villages had come under Hezbollah's control by the end of the day. Amal was decisively defeated and lost its foothold in the region, and 15 people in total were killed, among them two Amal commanders in Sohmor. A joint Security Committee was formed, consisting of representatives from the warring factions, as well as Iranian Embassy and Syrian Army officials. The committee intervened to enforce a ceasefire agreement at 11:00 a.m. on December 5, and was handed over 29 Amal members held captive by Hezbollah. The situation gradually returned to normality, while militants and artillery installations were withdrawn from the conflict zone as part of the ceasefire's terms. The committee and the Red Cross coordinated the evacuation of the injured. On December 7, fighting broke out once again around 11:30 a.m., this time in West Beirut. Amal and Hezbollah militants clashed repeatedly in the
central areas of Khandaq al-Ghamiq, Basta al-Tahta, Basta al-Fawqa, Wadi Abu Jamil and in the old
Souks region. Syrian troops began deploying two hours later amid efforts to establish a ceasefire. The attempts failed after a short period of relative calm, and the fighting resumed at the edges of the Msaytbeh district, around Sanayeh Park, Haoud al-Wilaya Park and El Murr Tower. A ceasefire came through at 5 p.m., and was enforced by the Syrian Army which started deploying in coordination with the joint Security Committee. Both sides started mobilizing afterwards throughout West Beirut and the southern suburbs of Dahieh. Limited clashes took place an hour later around the Souks and in the Lija neighborhood, and gradually diminished towards nightfall. From that point, overnight, only intermittent gunshots were heard in the area. Another ceasefire was officially announced at 8 a.m. the following morning while Syrian troops were still deploying, but it was followed by occasional street battles that took place in the Bourj Abi Haydar and Wadi Abu Jamil regions, as well as in the Iranian Cultural Moustasharia's surroundings further south. By 2 p.m., the situation had been largely contained by the Syrian Army, which had set up over twenty checkpoints throughout the conflict zone and sent armed patrols to West Beirut and the southern Dahieh suburbs, with orders to shoot any armed individual on sight. Nine deaths were confirmed since the beginning of the violence in Beirut, and the origins of this escalation remained obscure. On December 20, Amal and Hezbollah started mobilizing in Iqlim al-Tuffah, amid increasing tension in the region. 2,000 Amal militiamen and 1,500 Palestinian fighters deployed to the Iqlim. A senior Hezbollah official said that it was only a matter of time before war broke out between the two rivals, and confirmed that
PFLP-GC fighters also mobilized in Ain Bouswar and Jbaa, a Hezbollah-controlled town where Iranian physicians had arrived a month earlier and were assigned to field hospitals there. Berri received that day a delegation representing residents of the Iqlim, and reassured them that Amal would not allow the situation to escalate militarily. The mobilizations were met by general strikes in Tyre and Nabatieh the following day, where shops, schools and state institutions were closed. Street demonstrators in Nabatieh called for "ending the
fitna" between the two movements, and a similar march was called for by Amal in Tyre. In Damascus, on December 22, Shamseddine met with Syrian and Iranian officials to discuss the situation in the Iqlim. At this point, about 1,500 Hezbollah fighters were reportedly stationed in the region. War eventually broke out on December 23 at around 4 a.m., despite mediation talks underway in the Syrian capital, which were later attended by Nabih Berri. The fighting began when Hezbollah, aiming to connect its encircled pocket in Jabal Safi to the Mediterranean coast westward and to the Nabatieh region southward, launched an offensive similar to its earlier January campaign, though this time the initial push came from Jbaa. According to Amal's account of the events, the village of Ain Qana was attacked first, shortly after mortar fire targeted the movement's positions throughout the Iqlim, followed by Kfar Fila. A subsequent counteroffensive by Amal failed to regain much ground. To the north, an Amal installation near Bouslaiya was ambushed from two directions, one being Jbaa and the other Mjaydal. The latter saw repeated clashes, after which Hezbollah militants reportedly withdrew from the village. Hundreds of families had already left the Iqlim when the mobilizations began days earlier, while others set up checkpoints near the Amal-held villages of Ain Qana, Arabsalim and Mjaydal to limit the infiltration of Hezbollah affiliates to the region. Hezbollah fighters, who were less numerous but better equipped than Amal's, had managed to occupy Ain Qana, Kfar Fila and Bouslaiya during their initial offensive, with conflicting reports over Kfar Melki. The following day, Amal commenced another counteroffensive, backed by artillery strikes on Jbaa, but failed to make any significant advances on Kfar Fila. Its fighters did, however, manage to penetrate Ain Qana. To the north, Amal fortified its positions in Mjaydal, fearing further incursions by Hezbollah. The fighting devolved into minor skirmishing by nightfall, and was widely condemned by Lebanese Shiite figures like Qabalan and other politicians, such as
Osama Saad of the
Popular Nasserist Organization, which hosted a "national Islamic summit" in its Sidon headquarters denouncing the violence. Meanwhile, in Damascus, the Amal delegation headed by Berri insisted on the evacuation of villages recently occupied by Hezbollah as a precondition to a proposed ceasefire. According to
Ad-Diyar, Hezbollah carried out an assault on Jernaya on the night of December 25, capturing the hill. Clashes took place the next day on the Jarjouh-Ain Bouswar front line. Hezbollah, which reportedly deployed 500 more fighters to the Iqlim since the war began, appeared to be pushing towards Jarjouh and Arabsalim, which were still controlled by Amal. On the same day, Berri made a visit to the Iqlim in an attempt to boost his men's morale. He spent that night near the front lines, where he met with senior Amal commanders and urged them to abide by a ceasefire that was proposed in Damascus. Clashes around Kfar Fila and Ain Qana had toned down considerably by then, but there was still fighting in the Jarjouh front on December 27. Iranian deputy foreign minister,
Ali Mohammad Besharati, formally announced the ceasefire that evening during a press conference in Beirut. On June 14,
Al-Hayat reported that 2,500 people had been killed so far throughout the entire Amal-Hezbollah war, in addition to five thousand injuries.
"Hundred-day siege" On July 16, 1990, Hezbollah fighters overran the Amal-held village of Jarjouh, as well as Kfar Melki, the nearest village in Iqlim al-Tuffah to the port city of Sidon. After several failed attempts by Amal to recover Jarjouh the following week, the movement went instead on the offensive in Kfar Melki on July 28. Backed by
Palestinian guerilla fighters from the
Hamas movement,
Amal recaptured Kfar Melki. 16 people were killed during the offensive, among them a
Palestinian, raising the death toll since mid-July to 166. ==See also==