SHIITES: 11 EXECUTED FOR U.S. - BACKED BOMBINGS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807570027-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: March 4, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807570027-9
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
4 March 1986
Shiltes: 11 executed for U.S.- backed bombings
h- Ift"-w Wire Ss,..er.
BEIRUT, Lebanon - The radical
Shiite Muslim rou Hezbollah yes.
t
two wpm sa in
e admitte being nvo ve to
32 bombings pu rte y p Otte y
U.SIsraeli an Lebanese me i-
ImaR
in a statement delivered to news
organizations in Beirut, the Hezbel-
lah movemen% or Party. of God, said
the 11 had been. Involved in a four'
year bombing campaign in West Bei-
rut and the port of Tripoli that killed
277 people and wounded 1,111.
The statement from Hezbollah
came as Muslim and Christian gun.
ners shelled residential districts
across Beirut's Green Line in a civil
war flare-up that police said killed
four people and wounded 19.
The barrages were fired as a Vati.
can envoy began making contacts
with Lebanese leaders in an effort to
revive talks that might end Leba-
non's 11-year-old civil war
The Hezbollah, which is believed
to be loyal to Iranian revolutionary
leader Ayatollah Ruhollab Kho-
meini, did not reveal when or how
the executions were carried out. It
did distribute a 68-page account of
the alleged confessions, including bi-
ographies and photographs of the 11
who it said were executed.
Their alleged attacks included an
October 1981 car-bomb explosion out-
side the Beirut headquarters of the
Moscow-oriented Democratic Front
for the Liberation of Palestine, and a
March 1985 car bombing in the Shi-
ite-populated Beir el-Abed suburb.
The 1981 bombing killed 84 people
and wounded 225. The Beir el-Abed
blast outside the home of Sheikh
Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. the
Lebanese Shiites' main spiritual
guide, killed 75 people and wounded
256.
The Washington Post reported last
year that the Beir el-Abed attack was
carried out y banese agen s
trained by the CIA. The CIA denied
the charges.
Hezbollah's list of those executed
included the names 01-several Leba-
fl!Se cers among t mnl qi
In on Kassis the army
chief, and his top aides. It accused
them o recting CIA and Israeli
inte gl>i nce in rut.
omen were identified as
Azzat Sharif Husseini, 21, a Shiite
student, and Laure HaJJ, 33, a Chris-
tian schoolteacher who was said to
have worked for the ring together
with her husband, Samir. He was
among the men reported executed.
In the fighting between Muslims
and Christians, the warring militias
traded mortar, anti-aircraft and
rocket-propelled grenade fire.
Among those killed was a police-
man Ruarding the Parliament build.
ing, which stands in no man's land
along the three-mile demarcation
line that divides Beirut into Chris-
tian and Muslim territories. The
other three dead were civilians.
The bombardment escalated from
sniping duels and sporadic salvos in
the morning rush hour. Police re-
ported that two cease-fires were shat-
tered in the clashes, the heaviest
across the Green Line in weeks.
Panic-stricken motorists raced off
the busy commercial Hamra Street in
Muslim West Beirut as sniper fire
crackled overhead.
Heavily armed Muslims fanned out
through West Beirut after a brief
clash between Druse militiamen and
Shiite Muslim soldiers.
'
Yesterday's violence came as the
Vatican envoy, Monsignor Luigi
Giatti, began talks with Christian
leaders. The Christian Voice of Leba-
non radio accused Muslim militias of
seeking to sabotage the Vatican mis-
STAT
Sion by shelling East Beirut.
Giatti arrived Sunday and was to
meet President Amin Gemayel, who
is a Christian, and other leaders in
East Beirut. He is also scheduled to
hold talks with Prime Minister Ra-
shid Karami, a Sunni Muslim, in
West Beirut.
pave the` way for a trip to Lebanon
and Syria by the Vatican's foreign
minister, Monsignor Achille Silver
trine.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807570027-9