![]() The tony seaside playground was one reason why Beirut was known as the “Paris of the Middle East.” International celebrities, such as Brigitte Bardot, and heads of state, including King Farouk of Egypt, stayed at the waterfront Saint-Georges Hotel, one of the district’s most glamorous spots. Violence between Christian and Muslim militias had broken out a decade earlier, and one of the first battlegrounds was the city’s famed Minet-el-Hosn hotel district. It wasn’t hyperbole: the Commodore was only a few minutes’ walk from some of the bloodiest fighting in Lebanon’s civil war. ![]() “Artillery side or car-bomb side?” That was the question posed to guests checking into Beirut’s Commodore Hotel in 1982. This story is brought to you in partnership with Beirut, the new movie starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike. The Holiday Inn was occupied by Phalangists battling leftist Muslim fighters during Beirut’s “Hotel War,” a subconflict of the Lebanese Civil War. A masked Phalange gunman plays the piano, his assault rifle momentarily set aside, in a bar at the Holiday Inn in Beirut, Lebanon, November 3, 1975.
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