TIMELINE: Hezbollah's showdown with Lebanese government

(Reuters) - Clashes resumed in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli on Monday in fighting between Hezbollah and its pro-government opponents.

The drive by Hezbollah to take control of strategic locations has increased pressure on the governing coalition, supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to accept the opposition's terms for ending 18 months of political conflict.

Here is a chronology of events in Lebanon in the last 18 months.

November 11, 2006 - Five pro-Syrian Shi'ite Muslim ministers from Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal movement, resign after the collapse of talks on giving their camp more say in government.

November 21 - Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel is killed by gunmen.

December 1 - Hezbollah, Amal and supporters of Christian leader Michel Aoun camp outside Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's office in Beirut in open-ended campaign to topple the government.

June 13 - Anti-Syrian parliamentarian Walid Eido and five other people killed by a car bomb near a Beirut beach club.

September 2 - Lebanese troops seize complete control of Nahr al-Bared camp after months of fighting with Fatah al-Islam militants which kills over 420 people, including 168 soldiers.

September 19 - Car bomb in Beirut kills anti-Syrian Christian lawmaker Antoine Ghanem and six other people.

November 23 - Lahoud leaves presidential palace at end of his term, no successor has been elected. Next day Siniora says his cabinet is assuming executive powers.

December 5 - Speaker Berri says rival Lebanese leaders have agreed on General Michel Suleiman as president.

December 12 - Car bomb kills Brigadier General Francois al-Hajj, the army's head of operations, and a bodyguard in a Christian town east of Beirut.

January 15, 2008 - Car bomb in Christian area of Beirut kills at least 3 people and wounds 16, damages a U.S. embassy car and destroys others.

January 25 - Wisam Eid, a captain in a Lebanese police intelligence unit, is killed by a bomb blast in mainly Christian east Beirut. At least five other people are killed.

February 11 - Three army officers and 16 soldiers are charged over the killing of seven opposition protesters on January 27.

February 14 - Lebanon's Hezbollah holds mass funeral for its assassinated commander Imad Moughniyah, in Beirut. He was killed in a bomb blast in Syria the day before.