Assassination of Bachir Gemayel

Assassination of Bachir Gemayel
Part of the Lebanese Civil War
The Kataeb headquarters after the explosion
Location	Beirut, Lebanon
Date	14 September 1982; 41 years ago (1982-09-14)
Target	Bachir Gemayel
Attack type	TNT explosion
Weapon	Remote-controlled explosive
Deaths	24
Injured	70+
Perpetrators	SSNP members Habib Shartouni and Nabil Alam

On 14 September 1982, a bomb was detonated during a meeting of the right-wing Christian Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalanges) in the Beirut neighborhood of Achrafieh. Militia commander and Lebanese president-elect Bachir Gemayel and 23 other Kataeb Party politicians were killed in the blast.

The attack was carried out by Habib Shartouni and allegedly planned by Nabil Alam, both members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). Both men were believed to have acted on instructions of the Syrian government led by president Hafez al-Assad.^[1] The next day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) moved to occupy the city, allowing members of the Lebanese Forces militia under the command of Elie Hobeika to enter the centrally located Sabra neighborhood and adjoining Shatila refugee camp. Militia members then massacred between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shia Muslims, causing an international uproar.