6-Week War Cost Lebanon $1 Billion
Lebanon’s six-week Christian war cost the country about $1 billion, according to Samir Geagea, the leader of the militia that fought in it.
At least 810 people were killed and more than 2,650 wounded in inter-Christian fighting between Geagea’s Lebanese Forces and Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun’s army, which devastated Lebanon’s Christian heartland and left no building in East Beirut unscathed.
“According to very initial estimates, the damage caused by the . . . battles is worth $500 million to $1 billion,” East Beirut’s Ad Diyar newspaper quoted Geagea on Friday as saying.
A shaky cease-fire has been in force for more than two weeks after the Maronite church threatened to excommunicate Aoun and Geagea if the bloodletting went on.
Geagea’s 10,000-member Lebanese Forces went to war with Aoun’s 15,000-strong army for the leadership of Lebanon’s Christians when the general ordered the militia to disband Jan. 31.
Aoun heads an interim military Cabinet and refuses to recognize the internationally recognized, West Beirut-based government of Syrian-backed President Elias Hrawi.
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