At least 182 killed across Lebanon in large wave of Israeli strikes
BBC →The latest escalation in the decades-long conflict between Hezbollah and Israel erupted when the group fired rockets into Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening stages of the war.
British Launch Heavy Attack On Damascus, Defending French Form New Lines South of Beirut
BY the Associated Press. DAMASCUS, Syria, June 11. British forces closing in on this ancient capital launched heavy attack against French defenders in the last hour of daylight to- night just east of Kissoué, which lies only 10 miles south of here. French forces resisting the drive of a second British-Free French column formed new lines in the vicinity of Beirut, after the invaders had forced them back in a continued advance. Reports to London from Syria tonight said De-Gaullist British column had pushed to within 11 miles of Damascus before be- ing halted by violent fighting by the capital's French defenders. This advance, directed upon Bei- rut as an immediate goal, was sup- ported strongly by the British Medi- terranean fleet operating offshore. French Planes Active. Overhead French aviation was in- creasingly active, bombing enemy formations and centers at various points. In London Reuters, British news agency, said the Turkish radio reported that the British armored column advancing from Abou Renal into Syria had oc- cupied the important airfield at Der ez Zor, 70 miles northwest of Abou Renal, on the Euphrates River. The French communiqué said a column of British ar- mored units had made contact with the French at Abou Renal on the Iraq frontier. Today's late British onslaughts came after French resistance had stiffened sharply, supported by new aerial aid offered by bombers that yesterday raided the British oil port of Haifa, Palestine. In Vichy, the French acknowl- edged
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Battle of Damascus (1941)
The Battle of Damascus (18–21 June 1941) was the final action of the Allied advance on Damascus in Syria during the Syria–Lebanon campaign in World War II. During the morning of 21 June, the Australians consolidated their positions around the forts, and in the Barada Gorge and around 11:00, the Vichy French garrison in Damascus surrendered. By noon on 21 June, the Allied forces were in Damascus and the Vichy forces were retreating west along the Beirut road.
Wikipedia →Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre
The Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre (also known as the Convention of Acre) concluded the Syria–Lebanon Campaign of World War II. The Armistice, signed on 14 July 1941, was between Allied forces in the Middle East under the command of British General Henry Maitland Wilson, and Vichy France forces in Syria and Lebanon, under the command of General Henri Dentz. Having lost control of the Northern Desert and the Euphrates Province and being threatened with the imminent loss of Beirut, General Dentz decided to ask for an armistice.
Wikipedia →Lebanese Independence Day
Lebanese Independence Day is celebrated on 22 November in commemoration of the end of the French control over Lebanon in 1943, after 23 years of Mandate rule.
Wikipedia →