Battle of Zahleh
The Battle of Zahleh (Arabic: معركة زحلة) took place during the Lebanese Civil War, between December 1980 and June 1981. During the seven-month period, the city of Zahle (Arabic: زحلة) endured a handful of political and military setbacks. The opposing key players were on the one side, the Lebanese Forces or LF (Arabic: القوات اللبنانية) aided by Zahlawi townspeople, and on the other side, the Syrian Armed Forces, then part of the peace-keeping Arab Deterrent Force or ADF (Arabic: قوات الردع العربية), aided by some Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) factions. Demographically, Zahleh is one of the largest predominantly Christian towns in Lebanon. Adjacent to the town's outskirts, the Bekaa valley (Arabic: وادي البقاع), spanning the length of the Syrian borders. Given Zahleh's close proximity to the Bekaa Valley, the Syrian Armed Forces feared a potential alliance between Israel and the LF in Zahleh. This potential alliance would not only threaten the Syrian military presence in the Bekaa valley, but was regarded as a national security threat from the Syrians' point of view, given the close proximity between Zahleh and the Beirut-Damascus highway. Consequently, as a clamp-down strategy, the Syrian forces controlled the major roads leading in and out of the city and fortified the entire Valley. Around December 1980, tension increased between Zahlawi Lebanese Forces and Syrian-backed Leftist militants. From April to June 1981, throughout the four-month period, a handful of LF members, aided by Zahlawi Local Resistance, confronted the Syrian war machine and defended the city from Syrian intrusion and potential invasion. Zahleh's strategic location Since the beginning of the Civil War, the city of Zahleh's key strategic location served as a key artery for the armed factions involved in the conflict, particularly for the Syrian Armed Forces who occupied the adjacent Bekaa Valley from May 1976. Throughout history, the city of Zahleh served as a trade hub for commerce; located between Damascus on the East side, including the fertile Bekaa valley that borders Syria, and Beirut City on the opposite west side. Although Zahlawi's readily took advantage of their location for trade and commerce, their geo-strategic location was a deterrent on the socio-political level between 1980 and 1981. From the west side, the city lies at the base of the 8,622 feet high Mount Sannine (Arabic: جبل صنين). The peak of Mount Sannine, not only overlooked the entire Bekaa Valley, but the Israeli-occupied Golan heights and even further. With that said, the Syrian's securing at least the base of Mount Sannine prevented any potential Israeli or LF attempts to scrutinize the occupied Golan Heights and further deep into Syrian territories. The Syrian reaction Strategically, the prime concern of the Syrians was to curb the Christian-controlled city's geo-strategic attributes. Consequently, the Syrian Army blocked the main roads leading in and out of the city. The Syrian forces, however, remained stationed outside the city, in particular, along the outskirts. The Syrian Army's Chief-of-staff at the time, General Hikmat Chehabi (Arabic: حكمت شهابي) expressed concerns over a free and uncontrolled Zahleh