List of assassinations in Lebanon
{{Short description|none}}
{{Incomplete list|date=February 2024}}
This is a list of assassinations in Lebanon and nearby countries.
Pre-1970s
class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
! style="width:10%" |Date ! style="width:25%" |Victim(s) !Location !Method ! style="width:25%" |Assassin(s) ! style="width:40%" |Notes |
1152
|Raymond II of Tripoli, count of Tripoli | | |Killed by Hashshashin |
April 28, 1192
|Tyre | | |Killed by Hashshashin |
August 17, 1270
|Philip of Montfort, Lord of Tyre | | | |Killed by Hashshashin |
1528
|Muhammad Agha Shu'ayb, Tripoli ruler | | |Assassinated along with his son in the Taynal Mosque of Tripoli. |
August 6, 1921
|Fouad Jumblatt, Druze leader | | |Shakeeb Wahhab | |
October 31, 1950
|Sami al-Hinnawi, Syrian head of state |Beirut |Shooting |Hersho al-Barazi |Killed by a cousin of former Prime Minister Muhsin al-Barazi, who al-Hinnawi had executed following a coup. |
July 17, 1951
|Riad Al Solh, first Prime minister of Lebanon |Amman |Shooting |SSNP |In revenge for the execution of Antoun Saadeh |
May 8, 1958
|Nasib Al Matn, Nasserist journalist |Beirut |Shooting |Pro-Chamoun Lebanese |Al Matni was assassinated in his office in West Beirut in the early hours on 8 May 1958.{{cite journal |author=K. S. |date=September 1958 |title=The Lebanese Crisis in Perspective |journal=The World Today |volume=14 |issue=9 |pages=369–380 |jstor=40393919}} |
September 1958
|Fouad Haddad, Journalist at the Kataeb Party's Al Amal newspaper |Beirut |Abduction | |Kidnapped in Beirut and killed in September 1958.{{cite news |date=6 May 2015 |title=A century of Attacks on Free Expression |url=http://www.dev.kataeb.org/news/2015/05/06/a-century-of-attacks-on-free-expression |access-date=7 November 2021 |work=Kateeb.org |archive-date=6 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106141520/http://www.dev.kataeb.org/news/2015/05/06/a-century-of-attacks-on-free-expression |url-status=dead }} |
October 13, 1958
|Waheed el Solh, aide to Prime Minister Sami Solh |Beirut |Sniperfire | |Assassinated during the 1958 Lebanon Crisis |
July 12, 1959
|Naim Moghabghab, Member of Parliament for the National Liberal Party | |Shooting |Killed when opponents attacked him in his car |
May 16, 1966
|Kamel Mrowa, the publisher of Al-Hayat and The Daily Star newspapers |Beirut |Shooting |Adnan Chaker Sultani (INM) |Shot at his office in Beirut. |
1970s
1980s
class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
!Date !Victim(s) !Location !Method !Assassin(s) !Notes |
March 6, 1980
|Salim Lawzi, journalist |Shooting |Syrian intelligence agents |He was kidnapped by gunmen on the Airport Road on 25 February 1980. His heavily bruised tortured body was found nine days later on 4 March 1980 in Aramoun, on the outskirts of Beirut.{{cite book |author=Fouad Ajami |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ye5sewVWcTAC&pg=PA2 |title=The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice since 1967 |date=29 May 1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-43833-9 |page=2}} |
May 2, 1980
|Hassan al-Shirazi, Iraqi-Iranian Shia scholar |Shooting |Ba'ath officers |Thirteen bullets hit al-Shirazi, mostly in his head, killing him.{{Cite web |title=al-Shahid al-Mufaker Ayat Allah al-Sayid Hasan al-Shirazi |trans-title=The martyr and thinker Ayatollah Sayyid Hassan al-Shirazi |url=http://almodarresi.com/mona/c90w8gfl.htm |access-date=2020-06-13 |website=almodarresi.com |language=ar}} |
July 23, 1980
|Riad Taha, journalist and president of the Lebanese Publishers Association. |Beirut |Shooting |Unknown |Although there have been rumors that Syrian intelligence killed him, there is also another report, stating that Taha was killed due to the feud between his family and another Shiite family.{{cite news |date=16 September 1982 |title=Feuds rampant in Lebanon |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hdoRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=5e4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=7109,315468&dq=gemayel+family+in+lebanon&hl=en |access-date=23 March 2013 |newspaper=The Spokesman Review |location=Beirut |agency=AP}} |
July 28, 1980
|Musa Shuaib, poet and member of Ba'ath Party |Beirut |Car bomb |Unknown |Killed by a car bomb at Beirut International Airport along with three others |
August 16, 1981
|Elias Hannush, NLP commander |Beirut |Shooting |Leftist gunmen |His nine-year-old daughter, his seven-year-old son, and two bodyguards were also gunned down.https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-Report-Lebanon-Mapping-2013-EN_0.pdf |
September 4, 1981
|Louis Delamare, French ambassador |Beirut |Shooting |Was shot at a checkpoint in Beirut. |
March 16, 1982
|Shooting |Unknown |Was killed in Hazmieh |
April 1982
|Sheikh Ahmad Assaf, Sunni cleric{{Cite web |title=Moslems and Christians in rare show of unity - UPI Archives |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/04/28/Moslems-and-Christians-in-rare-show-of-unity/4402388814400/ |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=UPI |language=en}} |Beirut |Shooting |Leftist gunmen |Gunned down by three assailants while driving home from a mosque in West Beirut. |
September 14, 1982
|Bachir Gemayel, President-elect of Lebanon |Beirut |Bombing |Habib Tanious Shartouni and Nabil Alam |Bomb explosion in the Kataeb's Beirut headquarters."Historic Assassinations Since 1865," The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004, p.156 (World Almanac 2004) |
September 29, 1982
|Saad Sayel, senior PLO commander |Shooting |He was taken by ambulance to the Mowasat hospital in Damascus, where he died from severe bleeding. |
rowspan="5" |April 18, 1983
|Robert Ames, CIA chief | rowspan="5" |Beirut | rowspan="5" |Suicide van | rowspan="5" |Hezbollah | rowspan="5" |A suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 32 Lebanese, 17 Americans, and 14 visitors and passers-by. The victims were mostly embassy and CIA staff members. |
Kenneth Haas, Station Chief |
James Lewis, CIA officer |
Janet Lee Stevens, American journalist |
William R. McIntyre, deputy director of the United States Agency for International Development |
December 1, 1983
|Sheik Halim Takieddin, Druze leader{{Cite news |last=Hijazi |first=Ihsan A. |date=1983-12-02 |title=DRUSE RELIGIOUS LEADER IS SLAIN AT HOME IN BEIRUT |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/02/world/druse-religious-leader-is-slain-at-home-in-beirut.html |access-date=2024-02-17 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} |Beirut |Shooting |Unknown |Was found dead at his home in West Beirut. |
January 19, 1984
|Malcolm H. Kerr, President of the AUB |Beirut |Shooting |Shot by two gunmen outside his office |
February 14, 1984
|Ghaith Khoury, Kataeb leader in Jbeil |Shooting |His wife was also killed due to her injuries |
March 1984
| |Abduction | |
February 16, 1984
|Ragheb Harb, Shia leader in south Lebanon |Shooting |Danny Abdallah and Hussein Abbas |Shot outside his home by Lebanese criminals, allegedly at the direction of Mossad. |
December 28, 1984
|Sheikh Khalil al Tawil, Druze leader |Shooting |Unknown |
June 3, 1985
|William Francis Buckley, officer at the U.S. embassy | |Execution |Abducted in Beirut on March 16, 1984. Executed in 1985. |
February 9, 1986
|Khalil Akkawi, leader of the Islamic Unification Movement |Shooting |Syrian Military Intelligence killed Tawhid leader Khalil Akkawi because he refused to fight the Lebanese Forces.{{cite web |title=Rougier, B. (2015). North Lebanon in Bilad al-Sham. In The Sunni Tragedy in the Middle East: Northern Lebanon from al-Qaeda to ISIS (pp. 1–25). |jstor=j.ctt1pk86v9.4 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1pk86v9.4}} Three supporters of Akkawi's Islamic Tawheed, or Islamic Unification Movement, were slain in gunfights with Syrian troopers after his burial.{{cite web |title=Four Killed, Including Syrian, in Tripoli Gunfights |website=Associated Press News |url=https://apnews.com/article/b2930e69e1a395febaaee678fa092fe3}} |
May 18, 1987
|Mahdi Amel, Marxist intellectual and militant |Beirut |Shooting |Pro-Iranian Shia Criminals |Amel was walking on Algeria street when armed men shot him.{{Cite web |title=HASSAN ABDALLAH HAMDAN |url=https://www.lokmanslimfoundation.org/New1/database_detail/11050/ |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=Lokman Slim Foundation |language=en}} |
June 1, 1987
|Rashid Karami, Prime Minister of Lebanon |Beirut |Syria (alleged) |
August 2, 1987
|Mohammad Choucair, advisor to President Amine Gemayel |Beirut |Shooting |Killed in his West Beirut apartment. |
February 9, 1989
|Anwar al-Fatayri, Progressive Socialist Party official |Deri el Qamar |Shooting |Officer in the Lebanese army |Shot at a public event |
May 1, 1989
|Sobhi Saleh, head of the Sunni Islamic Higher Council. |Beirut |Shooting |Unknown |Was killed by masked men in motorcycles near a mosque in West Beirut.{{Cite news |last1=Hijazi |first1=Ihsan A. |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |date=1986-10-08 |title=LEBANESE SUNNI MOSLEM LEADER IS SLAIN |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/08/world/lebanese-sunni-moslem-leader-is-slain.html |access-date=2024-05-23 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} |
February 17, 1987
|Husayn Muruwwa, Marxist philosopher |Beirut |Shooting |Pro-Iranian Shia Criminals |Shot in his head by gunmen at his house |
September 24, 1987
|André Mass, director of USJ in Saida |Shooting |Unknown |Three men stormed into his office and killed him.{{Cite web |last=lebanons02 |date=2014-10-15 |title=Assassination of Father André Mass, the director of USJ's branch in Saida |url=https://civilsociety-centre.org/sir/assassination-father-andr%C3%A9-mass-director-usj%E2%80%99s-branch-saida |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=Civil Society Knowledge Centre |language=en}} |
May 16, 1989
|Hassan Khaled, leader of Sunni community |Beirut |Car bomb |Khaled and 21 others were killed.[https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0712F83E5A0C748DDDAC0894D1484D81 Sunni Muslim chief killed in Lebanon] The New York Times. |
September 21, 1989
|Nazem Qadri, Member of Parliament from Beqaa region |Beirut |Shooting |Driver also killed |
November 22, 1989
|René Moawad, President of Lebanon |Beirut |Car bomb |Unknown |Killed along with 23 others when a 250-kg car bomb exploded while he was being driven through West Beirut |
1990s
class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
!Date !Victim(s) !Location !Method !Assassin(s) !Notes |
January 19, 1990
|Elias Zayek, Kataeb commander |Shooting |Was shot and killed in Jbeil |
October 21, 1990
|Dany Chamoun, son of former President Camille Chamoun |Beirut |Shooting |Syria{{cite web |title=Lebanon Historical Conflict Mapping and Analysis |url=https://civilsociety-centre.org/ictj/map/hist/map |access-date=13 September 2022 |website=Civil Society Knowledge Centre}} |Killed along with his wife and 2 sons. Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea was convicted but later cleared of the murder. |
December 1991
|Mustafa Jeha, writer and Al-Amal contributor{{Cite web |title=Mustafa Jeha |url=https://cpj.org/data/people/mustafa-jeha/ |access-date=2024-02-17 |website=Committee to Protect Journalists |language=en-US}} |Beirut |Shooting |He was a critic of Hezbollah and Iran |
February 16, 1992
|Abbas al-Musawi, Secretary-General of Hezbollah |Airstrike |IDF |Killed in an airstrike which also killed his wife, son and four others |
August 6, 1993
|Henri Philippe Pharaoun, former Foreign Minister |Beirut |Stabbing |Former bodyguard |Was murdered in his bedroom at the Carlton Hotel"Arrest in Beirut Slaying". The Washington Post. 1993-08-09. |
January 29, 1994
|Naib Ma'ayta, First Secretary of the Jordanian Embassy{{Cite news |date=1994-02-13 |title=Lebanese Hold 4 Palestinians In Killing of Jordan Diplomat |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/13/world/lebanese-hold-4-palestinians-in-killing-of-jordan-diplomat.html |access-date=2024-02-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} |Beirut |Shooting |Shot in head and chest by lone gunman outside his Beirut apartmentMiddle East International No 468, 4 February 1994, Publishers Lord Mayhew, Dennis Walters MP; Gerald Butt p.11 |
April 13, 1994
|Talib Suhayl al-Tamimi, leading member of the Council for a Free Iraq. |Beirut |Shooting |Iraqi intelligence |Four diplomats from the Iraqi embassy detained. One died in prison, the other three sent back to Iraq in 1996Middle East International No 543, 7 February 1997; Giles Trendle p.12 |
August 31, 1995
|Nizar al-Halabi, leader of the Al-Ahbash Sufi movementMiddle East International No 508, 8 September 1995; G.H.Jansen pp.13-14 |Beirut |Shooting |members of Osbat al-Ansar |Killed instantly when gunmen in a white Mercedes opened fire on his car in West Beirut |
2000s
class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
!Date !Victim(s) !Location !Method !Assassin(s) !Notes |
January 30, 2000
|Aql Hashem, Colonel in the South Lebanon Army |Bombing |Hezbollah |Killed by a remote-controlled bomb in his farm outside Debel. The planning and execution of the operation was filmed and broadcast by Hizbollah's own TV-station Al-Manar. |
January 24, 2002
|Elie Hobeika, militia leader |Car bomb |Disputed |Killed by a car bomb near his house in the Beirut suburb of Hazmiyeh. The explosion killed three other people, including his two bodyguards, and wounded six more people.{{cite news |last=MacFarquhar |first=Neil |date=25 January 2002 |title=Car Bomb Kills Figure in 1982 Lebanese Massacre |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/25/world/car-bomb-kills-figure-in-1982-lebanese-massacre.html |access-date=7 July 2012 |newspaper=The New York Times}} |
May 7, 2002
|Ramzi Irani, Lebanese Forces student representative at Lebanese University |Beirut |Execution |Cold case |Was walking down Hamra Street on his way to celebrate the birthday of his 5-year-old daughter, Yasmina when he was kidnapped without a trace. |
May 17, 2003
|Abdullah Shraidi, former leader of Osbat al-Nour |Shooting |Shraidi died two months later, in July,{{cite web |title=Tensions high in Palestinian refugee camp |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2003/07/2008410162529686215.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191220062500/https://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2003/07/2008410162529686215.html |archive-date=2019-12-20 |website=Al Jazeera}} from wounds sustained during the shooting. |
May 20, 2002
|Jihad Ahmed Jibril, leader of the military wing of the PFLP-GC |Beirut |Car bomb |A 2 kg TNT booby trap had been put under the driver's seat of his car. The blast occurred in a crowded commercial center in Beirut's Mar Elias district. |
May 2, 2004
|Pierre Boulos, former chairman of LF students' branch |Abduction | |Found dead in his car outside the Gemayze Hospital after disappearing.{{cite news | title = The Lebanese Forces Student Association of North America The Pierre Boulos Award for Excellence | url = https://www.lebanese-forces.com/2009/10/05/62726/ | work = Lebanese Forces Official Website | date = 5 October 2009 | archive-date = 26 October 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141026232037/https://www.lebanese-forces.com/2009/10/05/62726/ }} |
July 19, 2004
|Ghaleb Awwali, Amal official |Beirut |Car bomb | |Killed by a car bomb in Beirut |
rowspan="2" |February 14, 2005
|Rafik Hariri, billionaire and former Prime Minister of Lebanon |Beirut |Car bomb |Hezbollah (Disputed) |Killed, along with more than 20 others by a one tonne truck bomb that exploded as his motorcade passed by in Beirut. See Assassination of Rafic Hariri |
Bassel Fleihan, Economics Minister in the Hariri government
|Beirut |Car bomb |Hezbollah (Disputed) |Travelling in Hariri's motorcade, died of wounds sustained in explosion. See Assassination of Rafic Hariri |
June 2, 2005
|Samir Kassir, columnist at "An Nahar" newspaper and fierce critic of Syria |Beirut |Car bomb |Kassir was assassinated using a car bomb in Beirut on 2 June 2005, just a few days after the general elections.{{cite journal |year=2006 |title=Chronology Of Events: 2005 |journal=Mediterranean Politics |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=279–308 |doi=10.1080/13629390600683048 |s2cid=220378402}} |
June 21, 2005
|George Hawi, former chief of the Lebanese Communist Party |Beirut |Car bomb |Hezbollah (Disputed) |When a bomb planted in his Mercedes car was detonated by remote control, as he travelled through Beirut's Wata Musaitbi neighbourhood.{{cite book |last=Mallat |first=Chibli |url=http://mallat.com/books/Appendix1%20and%202.pdf |title=Lebanon's Cedar Revolution An essay on non-violence and justice |publisher=Mallat |page=124 |df=dmy-all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202044246/http://mallat.com/books/Appendix1%20and%202.pdf |archive-date=2 February 2012}} |
December 12, 2005
|Gibran Tueni, Editor in Chief of "An Nahar" newspaper |Car bomb |Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of al-Sham |Two of his bodyguards were also killed in the blast. |
May 26, 2006
|Mahmoud al-Majzoub, Palestinian Islamic Jihad official |Sidon |Car bomb |His brother Nidal al-Majzoub also died in the explosion. |
November 21, 2006
|Pierre Gemayel, Minister of Industry |Shooting |Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of al-Sham |The day before Lebanese Independence Day, at least three to four gunmen opened fire at close range on Gemayel with five different types of suppressed automatic weapons |
June 13, 2007
|Walid Eido, Future Party member of the Lebanese Parliament |Beirut |Car bomb |Syrian intelligence |Several citizens were also killed, two of whom were Nejmeh footballers, Hussein Naeem and Hussein Dokmak. |
September 19, 2007
|Antoine Ghanim, member of the Lebanese Parliament |Car bomb |Syrian intelligence |The car-bomb that killed him along with at least six others, including his two bodyguards, one of whom is Antoine Daou. |
December 12, 2007
|François al-Hajj, General |Baabda |Car bomb |Four other people, including his bodyguard, also died in the attack.{{cite news |date=12 December 2007 |title=François al-Hajj assassinated |url=http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?ID=23638 |access-date=25 October 2012 |newspaper=NOW Lebanon}} |
January 25, 2008
|Wissam Eid, senior intelligence official within the Internal Security Forces of Lebanon |Car bomb |Syrian intelligence |A car bomb attack containing an explosive charge of at least 50 kg of explosives killed him, along with his bodyguard and two civilians |
February 12, 2008
|Imad Mughniyah, senior Hezbollah member |Car bomb |Killed by a car bomb blast at around 23:00 in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood of Damascus, Syria. |
September 10, 2008
|Saleh al Aridi, leader of the Lebanese Democratic Party |Car bomb |Unknown |Killed by a 700gm bomb placed in his car outside his home in Aley District |
March 23, 2009
|Kamal Naji, deputy representative of the PLO in Lebanon |Bomb |Mossad (alleged) |Naji and three others were killed when a roadside bomb exploded as his convoy was passing the Kifah el Musallah security check point to Mieh Mieh camp near Sidon.[http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=100346 Medhat received death threats – Fatah leader] |
2010s
2020s
See also
Notes
References
{{reflist}}
{{targeted killing by Israel}}
Category:Assassinated Lebanese people
Category:Lists of assassinations
Category:Lists of Lebanese people
Category:Terrorist incidents in Lebanon