____________________________________________ IICC Perspectives Thus, at around 1:30 p.m., after five hours of waiting and three attempts at negotiation, units of the 828th Brigade entered the headquarters of the leftist forces in Beirut and took it over without a fight. The four-story building contained offices, a sophisticated wireless switchboard, and large food warehouses. My advice was to distribute the food to dozens of local needy families. Huge stockpiles of weapons and ammunition were also discovered in the headquarters' underground cellars. It took dozens of military and civilian trucks a solid week to remove and transfer the stockpiles of weapons to Israel. Leaders and dignitaries of the local Muslim, Christian, Druze, and other communities were summoned to meet with me and instructed to maintain peace and order in their communities, obey IDF orders, and report on potential hostile elements and activity. Abu Ibrahim came to my office every morning and helped with the day-to-day activities. He made intelligence materials available and provided personal contacts and methods for peaceful control. On his orders, his fellow al-Mourabitoun fighters joined the IDF forces and assisted them in searching the city. On September 19, the IDF took control of the al-Basta al-Foka and al-Basta al-Tahta neighborhoods north of Corniche al-Mazaraah. The ruling faction in the area was a small Nasserite organization called Ansar al-Thawra. After a short tough negotiation in my office, its commander signed a surrender agreement, and within two hours, an armored IDF force took control of the whole area. The action ended the takeover of West Beirut without a fight or any IDF or local population casualties. However, overnight, the situation changed for the worse. The massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps caused immense shock and an uproar. A wave of rumors of mutual acts of revenge swept Beirut. On the morning of September 20, a mass exodus of Muslim families from the southern neighborhoods to the northern suburbs of the city began, while Christian families prepared to flee, fearing revenge from the Muslims. It was only thanks to the quick intervention of the IDF that calm, and peace returned to the streets. The bloody events caused an unexpected change in the al-Mourabitoun position towards Israel. They gradually realized that only the IDF could protect the Muslim population in Beirut. Therefore, the al-Mourabitoun militia, as well as the local Muslim population, both Sunni and Shi'ite, chose to put their trust in the IDF, hoping it would protect them from further acts of revenge by the Christian phalanges.
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