Dahieh

Dahieh ( ar, الضاحية الجنوبية, lit=the southern suburb, french: Banlieue Sud de Beyrouth, Dâhiye de Beyrouth) is a predominantly Shia Muslim suburb, located south of Beirut, in the Baabda District of Lebanon. It is composed of several towns and municipalities.

There is also a minority of coexisting Sunni Muslims, and a Palestinian refugee camp which has 20,000 inhabitants. It is located north of the Rafic Hariri International Airport, with the M51 Freeway that links Beirut to the Airport passing through it. Prior to the 2006 Lebanon War, Dahieh was a residential and commercial area with malls, stores and souks.

Dahieh is the Beirut stronghold of Shia militant group Hezbollah, and it had large auditoria in Haret Hreik, Hadath and Bourj el-Barajneh, where Hezbollah followers gathered during special occasions.

History

Bourj el-Barajneh is the oldest locality of Dahieh. The town was inhabited by Shias in 1367, when the inhabitants rose in rebellion against the Mamluks. The town was mentioned in the Ottoman tax register tapu tahrir of 1545, when it had a population of 169 households, 11 bachelors and one imam, all Shia Muslims. Shia of Bourj were also identified in al-Duwayhi's writings in 1661, and the town was then known as Burj Beirut (lit. "the tower of Beirut").
Prior the civil war, Dahieh was part of the increasingly urbanized rural settlements outside of Beirut, with both Christians and Shias. Apart from the local Shias, significant numbers of Shias from Southern Lebanon and Beqaa Valley had been settling in Dahieh since the late 1920s, escaping financial hardship, some of them breeding horses especially in Ghobeiry.

Simultaneously with the siege of Tel al-Zaatar in 1976, Phalangists besieged the predominantly Shia-inhabited Naba'a quarter in Eastern Beirut; around 100,000 Shias were displaced and most left for Dahieh. They included Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah and other religious scholars. Most of the displaced were destitute, and their needs stimulated Shia solidarity and self-reliance, which focused on the urban insularity of Dahieh. Between 1975 and mid-1980s population increased as more Shias arrived from eastern Beirut, the Beqaa valley, and from southern Lebanon with the consequent Israeli invasions of southern Lebanon in 1978 and in 1982, both of which prompted more than 250,000 and 400,000 Shias respectively to flee their villages, caused thousands of civilian casualties and the destruction of 80% of the villages. Suddenly between 1970s and 1980s, Dahieh became half of Shia of Lebanon. Shias were Lebanon's poorest group, and in 1986, an estimated 800,000 Shias lived in Dahieh, the vast majority of Shia in Lebanon.

Dahieh was largely destroyed during the Israeli invasion in 1982. After Israeli forces reached the outskirts of Beirut and laid siege to the city, heavy fighting and concentrated bombardment ensued in and over Dahieh and its outskirts, causing massive civilian casualties. On August 1, known as 'Black Sunday', Israel conducted 210 aerial bombardments aided by naval gunfire support and artillery, in which approximately 185 thousand bombs and shells hit the suburbs over the course of 15 hours. On August 12, Israel conducted 200 aerial bombardments continuously over the course of 11 hours, in which over 1,500 bombs were dropped over Dahieh. In between October 1983 and June 1984, especially during the February 6 Intifada, Dahieh was again struck by intense bombardment by the U.S Navy battleship USS ''New Jersey'', the destroyer USS ''John Rodgers'' and the nuclear-powered cruiser USS ''Virginia'', causing hundreds of civilian casualties, according to then-ABC News correspondent Charles Glass. The offshore bombardment by these ships was the heaviest the U.S. had conducted since the Korean war. In August 1985, the Lebanese army heavily shelled Dahieh by artillery at the orders of then-president Amine Gemayel. Moreover, in April 1996, Israel largely destroyed Dahieh's infrastructure through air raids during Operation Grapes of Wrath, causing civilian casualties.

Demographics

Dahieh is home to one of the most densely populated communities in Lebanon. In 1986 the number of Shia living in Dahieh was estimated to be 800,000.

2006 Lebanon war

Hezbollah's television station, Al-Manar, was targeted in the area.

Hours after the August 14, 2006 ceasefire, Hezbollah pledged to reconstruct houses for the dwellers of Dahieh, and offered rent money for the time-being as an attempt to build better houses condenses.

On September 22, 2006, Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah attended a mass rally in Dahieh declaring a "Divine Victory" against Israel. Apart from mentioning Hezbollah having 20,000 rockets at its disposal, he also went on to criticize Lebanon's central government, stating it should step down and form a unity government.

According to the Hezbollah's "Jihad al-Bina' " association, the reconstruction of Dahieh should begin from 25 May 2007, the day of the anniversary of the 2000 Israeli pullout from Lebanon.

2013 bombings

On July 9, 2013, 53 people were wounded after a bomb exploded in a busy shopping street in the suburb; the blast came on a busy shopping day on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. A faction of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) claimed responsibility; however, FSA spokesman Luay Miqdad condemned the attack, as well as another attack the following month.

On August 15, 2013, a month after the first bomb, another car bomb blast hit the suburb. At least 21 people were killed and 200 injured in the massive explosion, the majority of whom children. A group linked to the Syrian opposition calling itself the "Brigade of Aisha" claimed responsibility for the attack.

See also

* Allegations of war crimes in the 2006 Lebanon War

References

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Neighbourhoods of Beirut
2006 Lebanon War
Shia Muslim communities in Lebanon
Sunni Muslim communities in Lebanon
Maronite Christian communities in Lebanon