After months of skirmishes, the Syrian Army and Lebanese militias then aligned with Damascus (mainly the Progressive Socialist Party and the Amal movement) stormed the holdout of the military government of East Beirut, led by Gen. Michel Aoun, who had declared a "War of Liberation" against Syria earlier during the year, and had just escaped a mysterious assassination attempt the previous day. On 11 October, Elias Hrawi requested a Syrian military intervention to end Aoun's "rebellion". In the following night, pro-Syrian forces tightened the noose around the Christian enclave, and tanks and armoured vehicles were deployed in the Shiite suburbs and around Souk-el-Gharb, south of Baabda. For the first time since the 1982 air battle, the Syrian Air force jets were allowed to enter the Lebanese air space in order to strike General Aoun military forces. Seven Soviet-made Sukhoi Su-24 jets were used in this operation.