LEBANON: AFTERMATH FOLLOWING ASSASSINATION OF SHEIKH AL-HALABI, HEAD OF ULTRA- RELIGIOUS AL-AHBASH ASSOCIATION.

Record ID: 432319

  • Title: LEBANON: AFTERMATH FOLLOWING ASSASSINATION OF SHEIKH AL-HALABI, HEAD OF ULTRA- RELIGIOUS AL-AHBASH ASSOCIATION.
  • Date: 31st August 1995
  • Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (AUGUST 31, 1995)(RTV ACCESS ALL) 1. GV CAR IN STREET WITH BULLETHOLES, POLICE CROWD 0.09 2. SV/MCU DAMAGED CAR/ SMASHED WINDSCREEN/ BLOOD IN CAR AND ON THE ROAD (7 SHOTS) 0.41 3. GV ONLOOKERS 0.48 4. GV/SV/CU SECURITY FORCES ON SCENE, BULLET HOLES IN CAR (8 SHOTS) 1.18 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 15th September 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
  • City:
  • Country: Lebanon ASIA MIDDLE EAST
  • Reuters ID: LVA98TCXZ00DRK073BJ6GMZ7ZLMU
  • Story Text: Masked gunmen killed the head of a rapidly-growing pro-Syrian Sunni Islamist movement on Thursday (August 31) in Lebanon's first political assassination in more than a year.

    Security sources said Sheikh Nizar al-Halabi, head of the ultra-religious al-Ahbash association, was shot dead by three gunmen who pumped 23 bullets into his car in front of his house in Beirut's mainly Moslem western sector. Halabi's driver and his 14-year-old son Bilal were severely injured, witnesses said.

    No group claimed immediate responsibility for the assassination.

    The killing shocked Moslems as Lebanon held a general strike to mark the 17th anniversary of the disappearance of another prominent Moslem cleric -- Shi'ite Imam Moussa Sadr who vanished in 1978 on a visit to Libya.

    It was Lebanon's first assassination since April 1994 when Iraqi opposition figure Taleb as-Suheil was gunned down in west Beirut. Lebanon arrested three Iraqi diplomats suspected of that crime, expelled the rest and closed the Iraqi embassy.

    Al-Ahbash, whose formal title is "Islamic Welfare Projects Association", is a religious and philanthropic association that has become a growing force in Lebanese Sunni politics since its foundation in the late 1970s with Syrian support.

    Known for its very close ties to Syria, al-Ahbash has come into conflict with the larger Jamaa al-Islamiye (Islamic Group), a Sunni fundamentalist movement viewed with suspicion by Syria for its links with the Moslem Brotherhood -- a radical group suppressed in Syria.


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