Near front lines where they once battled each other, former fighters in Lebanon's civil war now gather to bear the same message, half a century after the devastating conflict erupted: never again.

The war killed 150,000 people, destroyed the country and left an indelible mark on the Lebanese psyche.

Years after it ended in 1990, some buildings in the freewheeling capital remain riddled with bullet holes, and 17,000 people who went missing were never found.

"It was a useless war," said Georges Mazraani, a Christian who took up arms in Beirut's working-class neighbourhood of Ain al-Remmaneh, where the conflict started.

The Christian district is separated from the Muslim neighbourhood of Shiyah by just one street that went on to become a key front line.

On April 13, 1975, members of the right-wing Christian Phalange militia machine-gunned a bus of Palestinians, leaving 27 dead, hours after assailants opened fire outside a nearby church, killing one of theirs.

The incident that ignited the war remains seared in Lebanon's memory.

The country had been on a knife-edge, with Palestinian fighters, and their Lebanese leftist and Muslim allies preparing for a........

© International Business Times