11 April 2013 Last updated at 06:27 ET

Lebanon profile

• Overview
• Facts
• Leaders
• Media
• Timeline

A chronology of key events:

1516-1918 - Lebanon part of the Ottoman Empire.

1920 September - The League of Nations grants the mandate for Lebanon and Syria to France, which creates the State of Greater Lebanon out of the provinces of Mount Lebanon, north Lebanon, south Lebanon and the Bekaa.

1926 May - Lebanese Representative Council approves a constitution and the unified Lebanese Republic under the French mandate is declared.

Civil war

Buildings in Beirut still bear the scars of the civil war

• Conflict erupted in 1975 after a bus attack by Christian militia
• Overthrow of the Christian military government in 1990 marked the end of 15 years of fighting
• 150,000 died in the conflict

1943 March - The foundations of the state are set out in an unwritten National Covenant which uses the 1932 census to distribute seats in parliament on a ratio of six-to-five in favour of Christians. This is later extended to other public offices. The president is to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies a Shia Muslim.

Independence

1944 - France agrees to transfer power to the Lebanese government on 1 January.

1958 - Faced with increasing opposition which develops into a civil war, President Camille Chamoune asks the US to send troops to preserve Lebanon's independence. The US sends marines.

1967 June - Lebanon plays no active role in the Arab-Israeli war but is to be affected by its aftermath when Palestinians use Lebanon as a base for attacks on Israel.

Civil War

1975 April - Phalangist gunmen ambush a bus in the Ayn-al-Rummanah district of Beirut, killing 27 of its mainly Palestinian passengers. The Phalangists claim that guerrillas had previously attacked a church in the same district. These clashes start the civil war.

1976 June - Syrian troops enter Lebanon to restore peace but also to curb the Palestinians, thousands of whom are killed in a siege of the Tel al-Zaatar camp by Syrian-allied Christian militias in Beirut. Arab states approve of the Syrian presence as an Arab Deterrent Force in October.

1978 - In reprisal for a Palestinian attack, Israel launches a major invasion of southern Lebanon. It withdraws from all but a narrow border strip, which it hands over not to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) but to its proxy South Lebanon Army mainly Christian militia.

Israel invades

1982 June - Following the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador to Britain by a Palestinian splinter group, Israel launches a full-scale invasion of Lebanon.

1982 September - Pro-Israeli president-elect Bachir Gemayel is assassinated. Israel occupies West Beirut, where the Phalangist militia kills thousands of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila camps. Bachir's elder brother Amine is elected president. Mainly US, French and Italian peacekeeping force arrives in Beirut.

1983 - Suicide attack on US embassy kills 63 people in April, and another in October on the headquarters of the peacekeepers kills 241 US and 58 French troops. US troops withdraw in 1984.

Southern militia

Antoine Lahd led the now-disbanded South Lebanon Army, which was financed and trained by Israel

• Analysis: Role of the SLA

1985 - Most Israeli troops withdraw apart from the SLA "security zone" in the south.

Two governments, one country

1988 -Outgoing President Amine Gemayel appoints an interim military government under Maronite Commander-in-Chief Michel Aoun in East Beirut when presidential elections fail to produce a successor. Prime Minister Selim el-Hoss forms a mainly Muslim rival administration in West Beirut.

Powerful Druze minority

Lebanon's 200,000 followers of the enigmatic Druze sect are a politically influential minority

1989 - Parliament meets in Taif, Saudi Arabia, to endorse a Charter of National Reconciliation transfeering much of the authority of the president to the cabinet and boosting the number of Muslim MPs.

Civil war ends

1990 October - The Syrian air force attacks the Presidential Palace at Baabda and Aoun flees. This formally ends the civil war.

1991 - The National Assembly orders the dissolution of all militias, except for the powerful Shia group Hezbollah. The South Lebanon Army (SLA) refuses to disband. The Lebanese army defeats the PLO and takes over the southern port of Sidon.

Rafik Hariri

Ex-PM Hariri was killed by a car bomb in 2005, which prompted another upheaval in Lebanese politics

• Hariri: A hard act to follow
• Obituary: Rafik Hariri

1992 - After elections in August and September, the first since 1972, wealthy businessman Rafik Hariri becomes prime minister.

1996 April - "Operation Grapes of Wrath", in which the Israelis bomb Hezbollah bases in southern Lebanon, southern Beirut and the Bekaa Valley. UN base at Qana is hit, killing over 100 displaced civilians. Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group, with members from US, France, Israel, Lebanon and Syria, set up to monitor truce.

Israeli withdrawal

2000 May - After the collapse of the SLA and the rapid advance of Hezbollah forces, Israel withdraws its troops from southern Lebanon more than six weeks ahead of its July deadline.

Israeli withdrawal

• 1978: First Israeli invasion
• 1982: Second Israeli invasion
• 1985: Israel pulls back to self-declared security zone
• May 2000: Israel pulls out of south Lebanon

• 2000: Hezbollah celebrates Israeli retreat
• Q & A: Leaving Lebanon
• Analysis: Legacy of Israel's withdrawal

2004 - UN Security Council resolution aimed at Syria demands that foreign troops leave Lebanon. Syria dismisses the move. Parliament extends President Emile Lahoud's term by three years. Weeks of political deadlock end with the unexpected departure of Rafik Hariri - who had at first opposed the extension - as prime minister.

Hariri assassinated

2005 February - Rafik Hariri is killed by a car bomb in Beirut. The attack sparks anti-Syrian rallies and the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami's cabinet. Calls for Syria to withdraw its troops intensify until its forces leave in April. Assassinations of anti-Syrian figures become a feature of political life.

Syria quits

Syrian troops entered Lebanon in 1976 to restore peace but were accused of occupying the country. They withdrew under international pressure in 2005.

• Syrian troops leave Lebanese soil
• Q&A: Syria and Lebanon
• Lebanon and Syria look to future

2005 June - Anti-Syrian alliance led by Saad Hariri wins control of parliament at elections. Hariri ally Fouad Siniora becomes prime minister.

2006 Israeli-Lebanese war

Israeli and Hezbollah forces were engaged in battle for 34 days across Lebanon and northern Israel.

• Day-by-day: Lebanon crisis - week seven
• I remember Lebanon - documentary

2005 September - Four pro-Syrian generals are charged over the assassination of Rafik Hariri.

Hezbollah and HaririLebanon profile

2006 July-August - Israel attacks after Hezbollah kidnaps two Israeli soldiers. Civilian casualties are high and the damage to civilian infrastructure wide-ranging in 34-day war. UN peacekeeping force deploys along the southern border, followed by Lebanese army troops for first time in decades.

2006 November - Ministers from Hezbollah and the Amal movement resign shortly before the cabinet approves draft UN plans for a tribunal to try suspects in the killing of the former prime minister Hariri.

Powerful militia

Hezbollah is one of the Middle East's most powerful and successful guerrilla organizations.

• Who are Hezbollah?

2007 May-September - Siege of the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr al-Bared following clashes between Islamist militants and the military. More than 300 people die and 40,000 residents flee before the army gains control of the camp.

2007 May - UN Security Council votes to set up a tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of ex-premier Hariri.

Syrian detente

2008 May - Parliament elects army chief Michel Suleiman as president, ending six-month-long political deadlock. Gen Suleiman re-reappoints Fouad Siniora as prime minister of national unity government.

2008 October - Lebanon establishes diplomatic relations with Syria for first time since both countries gained independence in 1940s.

2009 March-April - International court to try suspected killers of former Prime Minister Hariri opens in Hague. Former Syrian intelligence officer Mohammed Zuhair al-Siddiq arrested in connection with killing, and four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals held since 2005 freed after court rules there is not enough evidence to convict them.

Unity government

2009 June - The pro-Western March 14 alliance wins parliamentary elections and Saad Hariri forms unity government.

2010 October - Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah calls on Lebanon to boycott UN Hariri tribunal, saying it is "in league with Israel".

2011 January - Government collapses after Hezbollah and allied ministers resign.

2011 June - Najib Mikati forms cabinet dominated by Hezbollah. The UN's Special Tribunal for Lebanon issues four arrest warrants over the murder of Rafik Hariri. The accused are members of Hezbollah, which says it won't allow their arrest.

2012 Summer - Syrian conflict spills over into Lebanon in deadly clashes between Sunni Muslims and Alawites in Tripoli and Beirut.

2012 October - Security chief Wissam al-Hassan is killed in car bombing. Opposition blames Syria.

2012 December - Several days of deadly fighting between supporters and opponents of the Syrian president in Tripoli.

UN praises Lebanese families for having taken in more than a third of the 160,000 Syrian refugees who have streamed into the country.

2013 March - Syrian warplanes and helicopters fire rockets into northern Lebanon, days after Damascus warns Beirut to stop militants crossing the border to fight Syrian government forces.

Najib Mikati's government resigns amid tensions over upcoming elections.

2013 April - Sunni Muslim politician Tamam Salam is tasked with forming a new government.