Bus Massacre - Background

Background

Early in the morning of April 13, 1975, outside the Church of Notre Dame de la Delivrance at the predominantly Christian district of Ain el-Rammaneh in East Beirut, occurred an altercation between half a dozen armed Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) guerrillas (Arabic: Fedayyn) on a passing vehicle performing the customary waving and firing their automatic rifles into the air (Arabic: Baroud) and a squad of uniformed militiamen belonging to the Phalangist Party’ Kataeb Regulatory Forces (KRF) militia who were diverting the traffic at the front of the newly consecrated Temple where a family baptism was taking place. As the rowdy Palestinians refused to be diverted from their route, the nervous Phalangists tried to halt their progress by force and a scuffle quickly ensued, which resulted in the death of the PLO driver of the vehicle after being shot.

This would have been just another tragic incident among many of the kind, if had not been followed by a dramatic event that took place an hour or so later at that same Church. At 10:30 am when the congregation was concentrated outside the front door of the Temple upon the conclusion of the ceremony, a gang of unidentified gunmen approached in two civilian cars rigged with posters and bumper stickers belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a PLO faction – and suddenly opened fire, killing four Phalangist militants.: Joseph Abu Assi, a Phalange militant and father of the baptized child and his three bodyguards – Antoine Husseini, Dib Assaf and Selman Ibrahim Abou - shot while attempting to return fire on the assailants. They belonged to the personal entourage of the Maronite Zaim Pierre Gemayel, the powerful leader of the right-wing Phalangist Party, who was lightly wounded in head. The attackers fled the scene under fire by the surviving bodyguards and KRF militiamen on duty at the time.