tabbouleh, tabooli - a finely chopped salad with tomatoes and parsley and mint and scallions and bulgur wheat

Asbat al-Ansar, Band of Partisans - an extremist Palestinian Sunni group active in Lebanon in the early 1990s that advocates Salafism; responsible for murders and bombings; seeks to overthrow the Lebanese government and control Palestinian refugee camps; funded by al-Qaeda

Abu Nidal Organization, ANO, Arab Revolutionary Brigades, Black September, Fatah Revolutionary Council, Fatah-RC, Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims - a Palestinian international terrorist organization that split from the PLO in 1974; has conducted terrorist attacks in 20 countries; "in the 1980s the Fatah-RC was considered the most dangerous and murderous Palestinian terror group"

Force 17 - formed in 1972 as a opersonal security force for Arafat and other PLO leaders; became one of PLO's elite units; has built an extensive infrastructure of terrorist cells and weapon depots in Europe while attacking Israeli targets

Hezbollah, Hizballah, Hizbollah, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, Lebanese Hizballah, Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, Party of God, Revolutionary Justice Organization - a Shiite terrorist organization with strong ties to Iran; seeks to create an Iranian fundamentalist Islamic state in Lebanon; car bombs are the signature weapon

Jabat al-Tahrir al-Filistiniyyah, Palestine Liberation Front, PLF - a terrorist group formed in 1977 as the result of a split with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine; became a satellite of al-Fatah; made terrorist attacks on Israel across the Lebanese border

Popular Struggle Front, PSF - a terrorist group of radical Palestinians who split with al-Fatah in 1967 but now have close relations with al-Fatah; staged terrorist attacks against Israel across the Lebanese border

Arab League - an international organization of independent Arab states formed in 1945 to promote cultural and economic and military and political and social cooperation

Asian country, Asian nation - countries occupying the Asian continent

Middle East, Mideast, Near East - the area around the eastern Mediterranean; from Turkey to northern Africa and eastward to Iran; the site of such ancient civilizations as Phoenicia and Babylon and Egypt and the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity and Islam; had continuous economic and political turmoil in the 20th century; "the Middle East is the cradle of Western civilization"

Beirut, capital of Lebanon - capital and largest city of Lebanon; located in western Lebanon on the Mediterranean

Tarabulus Ash-Sham, Trablous, Tripoli - a port city and commerical center in northwestern Lebanon on the Mediterranean Sea

Saida, Sidon - the main city of ancient Phoenicia

Sur, Tyre - a port in southern Lebanon on the Mediterranean Sea; formerly a major Phoenician seaport famous for silks

Byblos - an ancient Mediterranean seaport that was a thriving city state in Phoenicia during the second millenium BC; was the chief port for the export of papyrus; located in Lebanon north of Beirut; now partially excavated

Asia - the largest continent with 60% of the earth's population; it is joined to Europe on the west to form Eurasia; it is the site of some of the world's earliest civilizations

Lebanese - a native or inhabitant of Lebanon