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lebanon:
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The scars of the Lebanese civil war are still very much in evidence. The conflict grew out of the disillusionment of the
Muslim majority over the political dominance of the Christian minority in the capital (Muslims make up 59 per cent of Lebanon's
population).
The situation escalated in the early 1970s before breaking out into full-scale war in 1975. Overt Muslim sympathy for the PLO also
brought Israel into the equation: in an attempt to eradicate PLO elements within
Lebanon, the Israelis invaded from the south in 1978.
For 12 years the country was left in a state of internecine civil warfare until finally, after 150,000 deaths and �15 billion of
damage, Syria's army stepped in and took control, and the long and rocky road to peace began. Few Lebanese expected then that it
would take 15 years for their Syrian occupiers to leave.
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