Elie Hobeika

Elie Hobeika (also transliterated as Hubayqa; إيلي حبيقة; 22 September 1956 – 24 January 2002) was a Lebanese Maronite militia commander in the Lebanese Forces militia during the Lebanese Civil War and one of Bashir Gemayel's close confidants.

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

According to The Guardian, he was deeply influenced by the deaths of much of his family and his fiancée by Palestinian militiamen in the Damour massacre of 1976.

Hobeika distinguished himself as a ruthless fighter in the Lebanese Civil War, gaining the nickname "HK" after the Heckler & Koch machine gun he carried.

In July 1977, Hobeika, then only known under the pseudonym "Chef Edward", led a massacre against civilians and Palestinian people in the south Lebanese village of Yarin where about 80 people of which probably 20 to 30 were civilians were lined up in front of the school and shot.

In 1978, Hobeika became head of the LF's security agency (Jihaz al-Amn).

He also became a personal bodyguard of Bachir Gemayel.

In the years that followed, he developed close ties with both the Israeli military and the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

He 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 (LF).

After the murder of Gemayel, he gained notoriety for his direct involvement in, and overseeing of, the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre.

Hobeika initially supported the IDF during their invasion, but later switched sides and supported the Syrians.

During Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Hobeika was the liaison officer to Mossad.

On 15 September, following the assassination of President-elect Bachir Gemayel the previous day, the Israeli army took over West Beirut.

Minister of Defence Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff General Raful Eitan had decided that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would not enter the Palestinian refugee camps but this task should be undertaken by Lebanese Christian militias.

On the night of 16 September 1982, Hobeika, then 25, was on the top floor of the Israeli forward command post, when the first 150 militiamen entered the Sabra and Shatila camps, which had been evacuated by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) at the beginning of September.

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

Hobeika's response was overheard by an Israeli officer, who testified that Hobeika replied: "This is the last time you're going to ask me a question like that; you know exactly what to do."

Other Phalangists on the roof started laughing.

Brigadier General Amos Yaron asked Lieutenant Elul, Chef de Bureau of the Divisional Commander, what the laughter was about and Elul translated what Hobeika had said.

Yaron then had a five-minute conversation, in English, with Hobeika.

What was said is unknown.

Over the next three days, the LF killed between 762 and 3,500 residents of the camp.

The CIA reportedly paid Hobeika (through Lebanese army intelligence officers) 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.

However, the assassination attempt was unsuccessful in that the car bombing near Fadlallah's residence killed around 80 bystanders, but left Fadlallah unscathed.

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

Until 1985, Hobeika sided with Israel.

However, then he began to support Syria's presence in Lebanon.

Hobeika was involved in another incident in March 1985.

In December 1985, the various Christian militias, the Shiite Amal Movement and the Druze Progressive Socialist Party met in Damascus to reach an agreement on political reforms as well as special relations with Syria, called the Tripartite Accord, which would also end the civil war.

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

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

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

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

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

After this event, Hobeika fled to Zahle and then to West Beirut.

He established a political movement there, the Promise Party.

In 1990, his forces fought with the Syrian forces against General Michael Aoun.

After the civil war ended following the Taif Agreement, Hobeika benefited in 1991 from an amnesty for crimes committed during the war.

In June 2001, Chibli Mallat, a left-wing Maronite lawyer, filed a case against Ariel Sharon in Belgium under a law that allowed foreigners to be sued for crimes against humanity.

In January 2002, he was assassinated by a car bomb at his house in Beirut, shortly before he was to testify about the Sabra and Shatila massacre in a Belgian court.