Antoine Lahad

Antoine Lahad (1927 – 10 September 2015) was the leader of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) from 1984 until 2000, when the army withdrew from Southern Lebanon and was dissolved.

Lahad died in Paris on 10 September 2015 from a heart attack.

In May 2014, a Lebanese court sentenced him to death in absentia for High Treason, Intelligence with the Enemy and Accessory to Kidnapping, Violence and Murder.

In November 2006, Lahad had an interview with Ynet. He asserted his opinion that Syria was behind the assassination of Lebanese Industry Minister Pierre Amine Gemayel,

After being refused the right to settle in France, Lahad moved to Israel. He released a Hebrew language autobiography in 2004, entitled, In the Midst of a Storm: An Autobiography.

When Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, Lahad was determined to carry on against Hezbollah. He pleaded for support from Israel: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}

He came to Israel after the remainder of the SLA disintegrated. In Lebanon, Lahad was sentenced to death for treason in absentia in case he ever returned. In a meeting with the Israeli Government Coordinator, Uri Lubrani, in May 2000, Lahad expressed deep concern surrounding the appropriate treatment of SLA members who ended up in Israel following the withdrawal. Contrary to contemporary media reports, Lahad stated that Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, had not tricked him. He highlighted the importance of his country's cooperation with Israel and cited the United Nations Security Council resolution 425 as a legitimate reason for Barak's withdrawal of Israeli armed forces. Lubrani assured Lahad that SLA members would receive appropriate treatment and thanked him and his men for their "long struggle for peace". Soon afterwards Lahad went to France to meet up with his family. Despite having family members living in France, the French authorities denied him permission to live in the country.

In 1988, Souha Bechara, a 21-year-old woman, tried to assassinate Lahad. She had been raised in the Eastern Orthodox Church and had become a member of the Communist party. She was tasked with assassinating Lahad. Bechara disguised herself as an aerobics instructor to visit with Lahad's family. On November 7, 1988, while she was having tea with Lahad's wife, he returned home. Bechara shot him twice in the chest. She was detained by his security team. Lahad spent eight weeks in the hospital and suffered health complications leaving his left arm paralyzed. Upon his return to service he pardoned and released Souha Bechara after the Lebanese and French government pleaded with him to do so, and after she spent ten years in Khiam prison and suffered six years of solitary confinement in a tiny cell.

Lahad took control of the SLA in 1984, following the death of Saad Haddad the founder of the SLA. After several meetings with many political leaders in Lebanon from all religions he agreed to take on the problematic south because his career and stature would allow him to hold together an army from all the Lebanese religions. Lahad was a Lebanese Army major general who was close to the Lebanese President, Camille Chamoun, a Maronite.

Born into a Maronite Catholic family in 1927 in the village of Kfar Qatra, Chouf District. He graduated from the Lebanese Military Academy in 1952.