The Fathallah barracks were the early headquarters of the

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

organisation, situated in the Basta neighbourhood of West

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

History

On 22 February 1987, following the defeat of the Amal Militia by a combination of

Druze The Druze ( ; , ' or ', , '), who Endonym and exonym, call themselves al-Muwaḥḥidūn (), are an Arabs, Arab Eastern esotericism, esoteric Religious denomination, religious group from West Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic ...

and

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

street fighters, 7,000 Syrian commandos moved into

West Beirut West Beirut is a term referring to the western part of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, which became popular during the Lebanese Civil War that lasted from 1975 to 1990, when the city was divided along sectarian lines into two main areas: West Beiru ...

for the first time since 1982. On 24 February the Basta HQ was taken over by the Syrians after an incident in which a Syrian soldier was wounded in the leg. At least 20 young Hizbollah supporters were taken prisoner and executed. Other sources put the number of victims as twenty seven, twenty three men and four women. Fifty thousand people attended their funeral. The killings put intense strain on the relationship between Iran and Syria and under pressure from Tehran the Syrian army stopped further activity in Beirut's Southern suburbs with its population of 800,000 Shiites.Middle East Contemporary Survey
/ref> Hezbollah's headquarters were later moved to secret locations in Dahieh, a suburb of

References

{{reflist Hezbollah Headquarters of political parties Buildings and structures in Beirut Beirut in the Lebanese Civil War Barracks in Lebanon