There is officially a war on in Lebanon. At least eleven people have been killed in fighting today as Hezbullah and its allies in Amal have gained control of some neighborhoods in Beirut. Among other things, Hezbullah and its allies have succeeded in shutting down the pro-government Future TV network. Let's go to the videotape to see that, and then I will have more.
Beirut Spring has some pictures taken at the ransacked Future TV offices, which offer proof that it's Syria and Iran that are behind what's going on in Beirut today. The areas that the Shiites control are in the Muslim sectors of Beirut. Here are more details.
Shi'ite opposition gunmen seized control of large areas of Beirut's Muslim sector from Sunni foes loyal to the US-backed government on Friday, in street battles that left 11 dead, security officials said.

Lebanese troops began taking up positions in some Sunni neighborhoods abandoned by the pro-government groups, but remained outside of the clashes, while elsewhere well-equipped Hizbullah fighters marched through Sunni neighborhoods.

With top leaders Saad Hariri of the Sunnis and Druse leader Walid Jumblatt besieged in their residences in Muslim western Beirut, officials of the pro-government majority called an emergency meeting of legislators in a mountain town in the Christian heartland northeast of Beirut, said LBC TV, a pro-government Christian station.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora was holed up at his office along with several ministers in downtown Beirut, which is heavily protected by troops and police. [You may recall that I have said on several occasions that Saniora should make peace with Israel and stop pretending that there's a dispute between us and him. Instead, he is now left to fight Hezbullah alone. CiJ] A Hizbullah protest encampment that has been there for 17 months near his office has not made any move against the complex.

"Even if Hizbullah 's militia took everything we remain the constitutional authority," vowed Cabinet member Ahmed Fatfat, who said the prime minister and some ministers were staying at the government compound. "The legitimacy is with the government," he told Al-Arabiya television from the building. [Big deal. That's totally meaningless right now. CiJ]

The newly established theocratic government of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran began to feel threatened by the PMOI and launched a fierce campaign to crush it. Hundreds of PMOI (also known as the MEK) supporters and members were killed from 1979 to 1981, and some 3,000 were arrested.

Ultimately, the organization called for a massive demonstration on June 20, 1981, to protest against the new leadership under the banner of Islam. At this demonstration, the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guards) opened fire on the demonstrators and SEVERAL HUNDRED were killed (according to Wikipedia). PMOI called this event a turning point in Iran's contemporary history.

On 28 June 1981, two years after the Islamic Revolution of Iran, the PMOI/MEK detonated bombs at the headquarters of the since-dissolved Islamic Republic Party. Around 70 high-ranking officials, including Chief Justice Mohammad Beheshti (who was the second figure after Ayatollah Khomeini at the time), cabinet members, and members of parliament, were killed. Two months later, the PMOI detonated another bomb in the office of the president, killing President Rajai and Premier Mohammad Javad Bahonar. These are considered the most important attacks in the history of the PMOI against the Iranian government.

Eventually, the PMOI relocated to France, where it operated until 1986, when tension arose between Paris and Tehran over the Eurodif nuclear stake and the French citizens kidnapped in the * LEBANON * hostage * crisis. After Rajavi flew to Baghdad, French hostages were released. The PMOI disclosed a tape of conversation by some Iranian official in the Iranian embassy in Paris showing the plot of repatriation of Massoud Rajavi to Iran. FROM THEN ON, the PMOI resided in Iraq, protected by Saddam Hussein WHO HAD BEEN AT WAR WITH TEHRAN since 1980.

Thousands of political prisoners from the PMOI, and also from other opposition groups, were executed in 1988, following Operation Mersad. Dissident Ayatollah Montazeri has written in his memoirs that this massacre, deemed a crime against humanity, was ordered by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and carried out by several high-ranking members of Iran's current government.

Relations with France in the mid-1980s

In 1986, after French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac struck a deal with Tehran for the release of French hostages held prisoners by the HEZBOLLAH in Lebanon, the PMOI was forced to leave France and relocated in Iraq. Investigative journalist Dominique Lorentz has related the 1986 capture of French hostages to an alleged blackmail of France by Tehran concerning the nuclear program.