Former Lebanese Christian warlord Elie Hobeika was killed in a car bomb explosion outside his home in Beirut. The explosion also killed at least three of his bodyguards. Hobeika, 45, led Lebanese Christian militia forces who in 1982 swept through the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Muslim west Beirut, slaughtering hundreds of men, women and children.
Lebanon accused Israel of the car bomb killing, saying it was designed to undermine a war crimes lawsuit in Belgium against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Israel denied any role in the killing. A Lebanese group saying it opposed Syria's continued grip on the country claimed responsibility in a faxed statement, calling Hobeika a traitor for his present-day allegiance to Damascus. The claim could not immediately be verified.
From what I understand, which isn't much, he's not much of a loss. But the pattern - bomb, kill, massacre, then start over again - is getting boring. |