Karantina massacre

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Karantina massacre
Award winning photo taken by Françoise Demulder during the massacre.[1]
Location	Beirut, Lebanon
Date	February 18, 1976
Attack type	Massacre
Deaths	~1,000
Perpetrator(s)	Lebanese Christian forces

The Karantina massacre took place during the Lebanese Civil War on January 18, 1976.

Karantina was a strategically situated slum district in Beirut controlled by forces from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), but inhabited mainly by Kurds and Armenians, as well as some Lebanese and Palestinian Muslims.

Karantina was overrun by the Lebanese Christian militias, resulting in the deaths of approx. 1,000 people. The fighting and subsequent killings also involved the nearby Maslakh quarter.

[edit] Estimations of the numbers of victims:

• "More than 1,000 people, fighters and civilians, were killed."[1]
• Harris (p. 162) notes "the massacre of 1,500 Palestinians, Shi'is, and others in Karantina and Maslakh, and the revenge killings of hundreds of Christians in Damur".
• The number of victims as "more than 1,000 civilians".[2]
• "Up to 1,000 were killed" and also notes the connection to Damour.[3]

v • d • e Lebanese Civil War Phases 1975–77 – 1977–82 – Israeli intervention (1982–83) – 1984–89 Engagements Black Saturday – Karantina – Damour – Tel al-Zaatar – Sabra and Shatila – The Camps

[edit] Literature

• William Harris, Faces of Lebanon. Sects, Wars, and Global Extensions (Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, USA 1996)

[edit] References

1. ^ 1976 - World Press Photo