20 Facts About Elie Hobeika

Elie Hobeika became infamous for his overseeing of the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla massacre.

Elie Hobeika became president of the Lebanese Forces political party until he was ousted in 1986.

Elie Hobeika then founded the Promise Party and was elected to serve two terms in the Parliament of Lebanon.

Elie Hobeika was born in Qleiat in Keserwan District, Lebanon, to a Maronite family on 22 September 1956.

Elie Hobeika steadily became prominent in the Phalange, part of the pro-Christian Kataeb Party, which had defeated rival Christian militias by July 1980 and incorporated them into the Lebanese Forces.

In 1978, Elie Hobeika became head of the LF's security agency.

Two hours after the first Phalangist force entered Shatila, one of the militiamen radioed Elie Hobeika asking what to do with 50 women and children they had taken prisoner.

The CIA reportedly paid Elie Hobeika to assassinate Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of the militant Shi'ite group Hezbollah, because Fadlallah was considered by US officials to have taken part in planning the October 1983 bombing of the US marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 241 servicemen.

The massacre led the CIA to terminate its relationship with Elie Hobeika and gave Hezbollah a lasting grudge against him.

Elie Hobeika was there in his capacity as president of the LF.

However, on 15 January 1986, President Amine Gemayel and Samir Geagea organised a coup against Elie Hobeika, thus rendering the agreement null and void.

Geagea was especially displeased that Elie Hobeika had changed his allegiance to Syria.

Elie Hobeika established a political movement there, the Promise Party.

Just before his death, Elie Hobeika publicly declared his intention to testify against Sharon about his involvement in the Sabra and Shatila massacres in the Belgian court.

Josy Dubie, a Belgian senator, was quoted as saying that Elie Hobeika had told him several days before his death that he had "revelations" to disclose about the massacres and felt "threatened".

When Dubie had asked him why he did not reveal all the facts he knew immediately, Elie Hobeika is reported to have said: "I am saving them for the trial".

Elie Hobeika was killed on 24 January 2002 at the age of 45 when a car bomb detonated near his house in the Beirut suburb of Hazmiyeh.

The group announced that it killed Elie Hobeika, since he was a "Syrian agent" and an "effective tool" in the hands of Ghazi Kenaan, the then head of Syrian military intelligence.

Lebanese and Arab commentators blamed Israel for the murder of Elie Hobeika, with alleged Israeli motive that Elie Hobeika would be "apparently poised to testify before the Belgian court about Sharon's role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre".

President Emile Lahoud and Hezbollah condemned the assassination of Elie Hobeika and blamed Israel.