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 Kessouè, 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 Reuter 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 Remal into Syria had oc- cupied the important airfield at Der ez Zor, 70 miles northwest of Abou Remal, on the Euphrates River. The French communique said a column of British ar- mored units had made contact with the French at Abou Remal 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- edge
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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. While the Free French were held up, the Indian troops were able to capture Mezzeh and then became cut off following a Vichy French counterattack. British and Australian reinforcements were brought up and throughout 19–20 June, the Indian troops holding Mezzeh continued to hold out despite running low of ammunition.
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, Commander in Chief of the Army of the Levant and as High Commissioner of the Levant.
Wikipedia →Lebanese Independence Day
Lebanese Independence Day is the national day of Lebanon, celebrated on 22 November in commemoration of the end of the French control over Lebanon in 1943, after 23 years of Mandate rule. The 1943 crisis saw French authorities arrest President Bechara El Khoury along with other members of government for 11 days after the Lebanese parliament voted to remove French Mandate powers — the power vacuum left by Britain's 1941 military campaign having fatally undermined France's grip on the Levant.
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