Haj Ali Shibli, a Hezbollah terrorist leader who fought against the IDF during the second Lebanon war of 2006, was assassinated from a short distance Saturday night by a family member of a Suni Lebanese boy named Hassan Ghosn who was murdered last year. Both murders took place in Khaldah, a coastal town some 8 miles south of Beirut, Lebanon.
As if abiding by a ghostly prophecy of both Marshall MccLoughan and Andy Warhol, the Shibli assassination was immortalized by multiple video clips showing the assassin firing directly with a military pistol during a wedding ceremony. Shibli was rushed to a hospital where he died, as An Nahar put it (courtesy of Google Translate), “as a result of several bullets he received throughout his body.”
لحظة اطلاق النار على خلال حضوره حفل زفاف pic.twitter.com/zeNt3PC6uW
— Ahmad El Hajj | أحمد الحاج (@AhmadElHajj007)
One video clip showed Shibli talking to his killer before turning and walking away, at which point the killer surprised him and fired shots at him, “which caused a sensation and a state of panic at the wedding ceremony.” Understandably.
فيديو جديد من مكان اطلاق النار على خلال حضوره حفل زفاف pic.twitter.com/pQpEykxaxj
— Ahmad El Hajj | أحمد الحاج (@AhmadElHajj007)
An-Nahar also reported that contacts involving the feuding Arab tribes and the security services are in place to control matters in Khaldeh and prevent an extension of the blood feud, and the Lebanese army has imposed a cordon around the place.
The hashtag Ali Shibli topped the social networks in Lebanon Saturday night. Sheikh Fadi Reda tweeted that the timing of the assassination was very suspicious, noting the ominous line: “Beware of the bats of the night and the treacherous apparitions.”
You betcha.
ما عجزت عنه “إسرائيل” في بنت جبيل.. قامت به ادواتها في لبنان..
شهيد الغدر الحاج ? pic.twitter.com/ZtCmBgUrIu— ?Zãýňåb???? (@zainab_elzein)
One Suhail Diab described Shibli’s exploits in 2006: “In the days of the July war, Ali was fighting in Bint Jbeil, making the enemy bitter with their crimes and moving from one location to another without the enemy’s tanks and soldiers being able to reach him. Cursed demons, full of hate, and God the mighty avenger!”
An-Nahar cited the tribe of Shibli’s assassin as saying, “We wish the families of the murdered Ali Shibli to consider the killing an eye for an eye and not to exceed that, and we are all keen to preserve civil peace and national participation.”
They asked the Shibli side to consider that “the incident is nothing more than revenge and is placed in the hands of the Lebanese judiciary until God commands it.” They added that they “hope that the matter will not lead them to an unfortunate sedition,” stressing that “it is in the hands of everyone who wants peace and good for the country and the nation.”
There you go.
