backed both by Syrian Army forces stationed at Lebanon and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrilla factions. Between September 1983 and October 1990, General Michel Aoun's Eighth Brigade managed to repulse the Druze Progressive Socialist Party's People's Liberation Army (PLA) militia and their allies' attempts to wrestle control of the town. Unfortunately for the local civilian population, it also led to the destruction of much of their town. On 10 August 1989 the Syrians launched a massive and sustained artillery barrage on the positions held by Lebanese Army units loyal to General Michel Aoun, followed three days later by a PSP/PLA ground offensive against their positions in Souk El Gharb overlooking the presidential palace at Baabda and the Ministry of Defence at Yarze. The assault was repulsed with 20–30 PSP/PLA men being killed. In June 2005, parliamentary elections were held in the town for the first time since the withdrawal of Syrian Army troops from Lebanon. One resident put it in this way: "For me, ballot box battles are for sure much better than gunbattles..." The Battle of Souk El Gharb in September 1983 Souk El-Gharb figured prominently in the Civil War years, but during this particular timeframe the town attracted worldwide attention due to the involvement of the United States Navy in the Mountain War, whose backdrop was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. On August 31, 1983, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unilaterally withdrew from the Chouf District located southeast of Beirut, thus removing the buffer between the Druze PLA and the Christian Maronite Lebanese Forces (LF) militias and triggered another round of brutal fighting. By September, the Druze PSP/PLA had defeated the LF in a series of engagements and gained control over most of the Chouf. However, in later stages of the battle, the Lebanese Army loyal to President Amin Gemayel's government relieved the LF and took over the positions that they had held onto to, thwarting the Lebanese Muslim militias' drive towards the presidential palace in the Baabda District, and into the Christian-controlled urban districts of East Beirut. Baabda lay downhill on the Beirut-Aley-Damascus highway, and any militia forces advancing from the south had to pass through Souk El Gharb in order to get into the Beirut-Aley road. Moreover, Souk El Gharb controlled a ridge that overlooked the key East Beirut districts of Baabda and Yarze, where were located the Presidential Palace and the