January 24, 1998

Hizballah announces it has formally ousted its fmr. chief, Shaykh Subhi Tufayli, fr. the organization. Tufayli, who is supported by 1,000s of Lebanese in the Baalbeck area, split fr. Hizballah to protest the groups participation in the 1992, 1996 elections and has led a nonviolent protest against government economic policies since last summer (see 7/4), but has recently started threatening to harm government officials. (VOL 1/24 in WNC 1/27; WT 2/1; MEI 2/13)