Background
The Lebanese civil war that began on April 13, 1975 was the backdrop against which the Syrian military presence in Lebanon was established. Syria first armed the pro-Palestinian militias operated between 1969 (after the Cairo agreement were signed this same year allowing the Palestinians to be armed and to attack Israel from the Lebanese territory) until 1970, when the war begun. They tried to mediate between the different factions involved.
In January 1976, its proposal to restore the limits to the Palestinian guerrilla presence in Lebanon, that had been in place prior to the outbreak of the civil war, was welcomed by Maronites and conservative Muslims, but rejected by the Palestinian guerrillas and their Lebanese Druze-led and leftist allies. To deal with the opposition posed by this latter grouping which was normally allied with Syria, in June 1976, Syria dispatched Palestinian units under its control in Lebanon, and soon sent its own troops as well. Syria claims these interventions came in response to appeals from Christian villagers under attack by the leftists.
Read more about this topic: Syrian Occupation Of Lebanon
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