Beirut – “Lebanon Debate”
On the evening of September 27, 1986, bodies remained lying around Sassine Square, while a Le Monde newspaper correspondent documented scenes of a man removing scattered glass from his sidewalk, avoiding a lifeless body in front of him. In the streets and basements of Achrafieh, search operations continued throughout the night for gunmen who had infiltrated the area during the day, marking the end of a military battle and the beginning of its most mysterious chapter.
The roots of these events go back to the sharp division within the ranks of the “Lebanese Forces.” In December 1985, its then leader, Elie Hobeika, signed a Syrian-sponsored political agreement with Nabih Berri and Walid Jumblatt, which was called the “Tripartite Agreement.” The agreement was met with categorical rejection by Samir Geagea and other Christian parties, and the disputes escalated into an armed confrontation that ended on January 15, 1986, with Hobeika being removed from the leadership of the “Forces” and his departure from the eastern region, without hesitation in trying to return.
On Saturday, September 27, Hobeika’s supporters attempted to implement this return by force. Fighters loyal to him crossed the line of contact separating West and East Beirut, coinciding with the movement of other groups supporting him inside the eastern region. Fierce clashes broke out in the vicinity of Sodeco and Achrafieh, all the way to Sassine Square, with the aim of wresting control from the “Lebanese Forces” forces, now led by Samir Geagea.
According to later testimony by Assad Shaftari, a leader in Hobeika’s ranks, the plan relied on the support of groups from within the region and the lack of intervention by the Lebanese army. However, Geagea’s fighters confronted the attackers, and the Lebanese army intervened to close the gaps on the contact line, which led to the failure of the storming attempt. Residents took shelter in shelters and basements amid severe damage to buildings, shops and cars. As the attackers retreated, searches for the hiding groups continued, and the “Lebanese Forces” announced the surrender of the last group at dawn on Sunday, September 28.
According to a police tally reported by the Associated Press, the battle, which lasted about 24 hours, left 62 dead and 198 wounded. The deaths were distributed as 25 Hobeika supporters, 27 fighters from Geagea’s forces, and 3 soldiers, in addition to 7 who died as a result of mutual fighting across the line of contact, a toll that does not include those who were killed after the fighting stopped.
The fate of the fighters who were later captured or arrested represented an extremely dangerous issue. In its annual report for 1987, Amnesty International stated that it had received reports that about 250 Hobeika supporters were arrested and disappeared following the operation. It was also recorded that 67 bodies were discovered in a mass grave near Jounieh on October 10, and 30 other bodies were later recovered from the sea, without publishing the identities of their owners, as the organization suggested that they belonged to those detained by the “Lebanese Forces,” while not confirming their identities or automatically including them as the official battle dead.
The International Center for Transitional Justice’s report included harsher details, based on the testimony of former Lebanese Forces fighter Regina Sniffer, who reported that men loyal to Geagea gathered supporters for Hobeika after they surrendered and executed some of them on the spot, while others were dragged in cars in Achrafieh and thrown into the sea after being tied to rocks. The report documented this story as testimony to violations attributed to elements of the force led by Geagea, while emphasizing that it does not prove that he issued a personal order to carry out liquidations.
The human rights concern did not end with the end of 1986; Amnesty International indicated in its subsequent report that suspects of supporting Hobeika were detained for months in centers in Karantina, Jbeil, and the Adonis barracks in Jounieh. By the end of August 1987, 21 people were released out of 49 whose names were known, and 5 remained in detention, while the fate of the rest remained unknown, with the emphasis being that reporting the arrest of about 250 people does not mean that all of them were inevitably killed.
As four decades have passed since those events, the incident of September 27, 1986 cannot be reduced to the mere failure of Elie Hobeika to regain a prominent position in Achrafieh, nor to Samir Geagea’s victory over him. Rather, it remains the story of a bloody fight between former comrades-in-arms, followed by arrests and documented testimonies of assassinations and unidentified bodies. While the shooting stopped on the morning of September 28, the question remained outstanding about the fate of those who fell into the grip of the victors.
