Gen. Antoine Lehad was reported out of danger Tuesday at Rambam Hospital in Haifa following an assassination attempt at his home in Marjayoun, in the southern Lebanon security zone.
Lehad is commander of the South Lebanon Army, a largely Lebanese Christian force of about 2,600 men, armed, trained and financed by Israel to police the security zone along Israel’s border with Lebanon.
He was shot in the chest and upper arm by Suha Bshara, 21, a ballet and physical education instructor described as a friend of the family. She was immediately arrested by SLA troops.
Beirut newspapers identified Bshara as a member of Lebanon’s tiny Communist Party, which is backed by Syria. She was issued a pistol permit only two weeks ago, the newspapers said.
Maj. Gen. Yossi Peled, the Israel Defense Force commander for the northern sector, visited Lehad at the hospital. He said the IDF considers the assassination attempt “very serious.”
Sources in southern Lebanon speculated that it may have been the result of an SLA crackdown on Hezbollah (the Party of God).
The pro-Iranian Shiite extremist group was responsible for a suicide car-bomb attack that killed eight IDF soldiers and wounded seven in the security zone last month.
A FRIEND OF HIS WIFE’S
The attack on Lehad appears to have been planned for some time. Bshara, a frequent visitor to the general’s home, was allowed in without being checked for weapons by security guards.
According to Lehad’s wife, Minerva, she and her friend Bshara were in their salon with one of Lehad’s top aides when the general returned home.
After chatting a few minutes, Bshara approached Lehad for financial assistance for her ballet school. Suddenly, she pulled a gun and shot him, Minerva Lehad said.
Lehad has commanded the SLA since 1984, when the IDF began its pull-out from Lebanon and established the security zone as a buffer against terrorist attacks on northern Israel.
It was the successor to the Christian militia of Col. Saad Haddad, who died of cancer shortly after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
Gen. Dan Shomron, the IDF chief of staff, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that Lehad’s bodyguard warned him against Bshara 18 months ago, when they first became friendly. He disregarded the warnings.
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