Aql Hashem , also spelled Akel Hashem, was a colonel in the South Lebanon Army and served under Saad Haddad and later Antoine Lahad. He was killed in a remote-controlled bomb attack by Hizbullah in his farm in January 2000. His death was widely interpreted as the beginning of the end of the Israel-backed South Lebanon Army. Aql Hashem was Maronite Christian born 1952 in the small village of Debel, close to the Israeli border. Hashem early decided on a military career and by the time the Lebanese Civil War broke out in 1975, he had reached the rank of sergeant in the Lebanese Armed Forces. When the Lebanese armybroke down in 1976 he joined Major Saad Haddad's Army of Free Lebanon, which was widely seen as an Israeli proxy force. After Haddad's death in 1984, the militia was reorganized as the SLA under the command of Antoine Lahad. Two years later Hashem was promoted to colonel and assumed command of the western sector of the security zone. Hashem was also head of security service in the SLA. He spoke fluent Hebrew and had excellent relations with the Israelis. Hashem was sentenced to death in absentia for treason by a military tribunal in Lebanon. He was widely considered a traitor in Lebanon because of his collaboration with Israel. This was especially true among the Muslim Shiite majority population of South Lebanon. The resistance to the Israeli occupation, where the SLA was considered partners, increased in the 1990s. The Islamic Resistance movement Hizbullah often referred to the SLA as Israel's "sandbags". Aql Hashem was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the SLA and was set to replaced Lahad as commander, who was going to retire. He had avoided many previous assassination attempts by Hezbollah fighters and was generally considered as "untoucheble". As Hizbullah stepped up its attacks on the Israel Defense Forces and the SLA, morale plummeted in the SLA and many members defected and gave up information to the resistance. On 30 January Hizbullah finally succeeded in assassinating Hashem by a remote-controlled bomb in his farm outside Debel. The planning and execution of the operation was filmed and broadcast by Hizbullah TV-station al-Manar. Two Hizbullah fighters, identified as "Jawad, 25 " and "Hadi, 28" were interviewed and told in detail about the operation. One of the participants of the assassination was Khalid Bazzi, who would later serve as the Hizbullah commander of the Bint Jbeil during the 2006 Lebanon War. Ephraim Sneh blamed Syria for the assassination. South Lebanon Army collapsed less than six months after Hashem's death. Hundreds of former officers and soldiers and their families fled to Israel. Others stayed on and were arrested and sentenced to varying prison terms for their crimes. Hashem's family fled to Israel, but his wife and two of his children returned to Lebanon in 2013.
