Bachir Gemayel

Who was Bachir Gemayel?

Bachir Gemayel was a Lebanese politician, militia commander, and president-elect. He was a senior member of the Phalange party and the supreme commander of the Lebanese Forces militia during the early years of the Lebanese Civil War. He was elected president on 23 August 1982 while the country was torn by civil war and occupied by both Israel and Syria. He was assassinated on 14 September 1982, along with 26 others, when a bomb exploded in the Beirut Phalange headquarters. The bomb was planted by Habib Tanious Shartouni. The Federal Bureau of Investigation blamed the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.