Black Saturday (Lebanon)
On 6 December 1975, a Saturday, four young Christian Phalangists were assassinated on the Fanar road in Beirut. In retaliation, Phalangists murdered hundreds of non-Christians. This set the capital town ablaze. The ethnic cleansing of non-Christians was led by Joseph Saade; he was a Phalangist whose son was killed in Fanar earlier during the day. The Phalangist set up a roadblock near the Port of Beirut, and proceeded to murder any passing civilian that was Muslim or Druze. At that time, a Lebanese identity card documented the holder's religion; this information was used by Phalangist's to identify non-Christians that were passing by the seaside area. It is estimated that more than 300 civilians were murdered in what was the first Ethnic cleansing of the Lebanese Civil War.
