Saad Haddad

Saad Haddad (right) in a conversation with Norwegian Norbatt IV field priest major Ole Askvig Øgaard (born 10 January 1930, died about 15 January 2006) and other Norwegian UNIFIL personnel in a hotel in the Israeli town of Metula.

Saad Haddad (Arabic: سعد حداد) was the founder and head of the South Lebanon Army (SLA).

At the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon, Haddad, a major in the Lebanese Army commanded a battalion to engage the PLO in south Lebanon. It was here where he joined other rebel Christian soldiers to form the Free Lebanon Army. Haddad's militia collaborated with Israel and received the bulk of its arms, equipment, supplies and ordnance from Israel. The SLA was generally regarded as Israel's proxy in southern Lebanon, and controlled Israel's self-proclaimed "Security Zone" following its invasion of Lebanon beginning in 1982. In 1984 Haddad died of cancer. His successor as the head of the SLA was general Antoine Lahad.

Following the massacre of 4 000 unarmed civilians in the palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila, an internal inquiry was set up by the Lebanese Forces. It came to the conclusion that the murders had been carried out by the militia of general Saad Haddad, commander of the ALS. The israeli "Kahan" comission confirmed this finding but placed part of the blame on Ariel Sharon.

During the israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon, Saad Haddad headed the radical christian radio station "Voice of Hope", set up and funded by right-wing US evangelist Pat Robertson. It was used as a front for the various criminal activities of the ALS (kidnapping, torture, murder, racketeering).