Eurasia Press & News
Here is a chronology of some of the main events in Lebanon since former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was killed on February 14, 2005, along with 22 others.February 28, 2005 – Pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami resigns.
March 5 – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad tells his parliament Syrian troops will start phased pullout from Lebanon.
April 26 – Last Syrian soldiers leave Lebanon.
June 2 – Samir Kassir, journalist opposed to Syria’s role in Lebanon, is killed in Beirut by a bomb in his car.
June 16 – U.N. investigation into Hariri’s killing starts.
June 19 – Lebanese parliamentary elections end in victory for anti-Syrian alliance led by Hariri’s son Saad al-Hariri.
June 21 – Former Communist Party leader and critic of Syria George Hawi is killed in Beirut by a bomb in his car.
October 20 – U.N. investigators say high-ranking Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies were involved in Hariri’s killing, in report to U.N. Security Council. Syria denies it.
December 12 – Gebran Tueni, anti-Syrian member of parliament and Lebanese newspaper magnate, is killed by a car bomb near Beirut.
July 12, 2006 – Hezbollah captures two Israeli soldiers in cross-border raid, setting off 34-day war in which Israel kills about 1,200 people in Lebanon.
November 11 – Five pro-Syrian Shi’ite Muslim ministers from Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal movement, resign after collapse of all-party talks on giving their camp more say in government.
November 21 – Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel is killed by gunmen. U.N. Security Council approves plans for tribunal to try suspects in assassination of Hariri and subsequent attacks.
December 1 – Hezbollah, Amal and supporters of Christian leader Michel Aoun camp outside Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s office in Beirut in campaign to topple the government.
January 25, 2007 – Aid conference in Paris pledges more than $7.6 billion to help Lebanon recover from the war with Israel.
February 13 – Three people are killed in two bomb blasts near a Christian village northeast of Beirut.
June. 13 – Anti-Syrian parliamentarian Walid Eido and five other people killed by a car bomb near a Beirut beach club.
September 2 – Lebanese troops seize complete control of Nahr al-Bared camp after months of fighting Fatah al-Islam militants which kills over 420 people, including 168 soldiers, in the worst internal violence since the civil war.
September 19 – Car bomb in Beirut kills anti-Syrian Christian lawmaker Antoine Ghanem and 6 other people.
November 23 – Lahoud leaves presidential palace at end of his term, no successor has been elected. Next day Siniora says cabinet assumes executive powers in the absence of a president.
December 5 – Speaker Berri says rival Lebanese leaders have agreed on General Michel Suleiman as president, though parliament has yet to elect him.
December 12 – Car bomb kills Brigadier General Francois al-Hajj, the army’s head of operations, and a bodyguard in a Christian town east of Beirut.
January 15, 2008 – Car bomb in Christian area of Beirut kills at least 3 and damages a U.S. embassy car.
January 25 – Wisam Eid, captain in Lebanese police intelligence unit, is killed by a bomb blast in mainly Christian east Beirut. At least five other people are killed.
February 9 – Parliament Speaker Berri says the presidential election is postponed to February 26, the 14th delay in the vote.
February 11 – Three army officers and 16 soldiers are charged over the killing of seven opposition protesters on January 27.
February 14 – A rally by the anti-Syrian ruling coalition marks third anniversary of the killing of Hariri.
— Lebanon’s Hezbollah holds mass funeral for its assassinated commander Imad Moughniyah, one of the United States’ most wanted men, in Beirut. He was killed in a bomb blast in Syria the day before.
