Rafic Hariri Assassination

On 14 February 2005, former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafic Hariri was killed in a car bomb in Beirut, accusations for which focused on Syria and Hezbollah. His assassination led to the Cedar Revolution, also called the Independence Intifada; the establishment of two political camps in Lebanon aligned on their anti- or pro-Syrian/Hezbollah position (14 March Alliance as anti-Syrian and 8 March as pro-Syrian); and the withdrawal of Syrian forces and the end of the Syrian occupation in April 2005. His assassination also led to the creation of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), a hybrid court based in The Hague with a mandate to hold trials for the bombing that killed Hariri and 21 others; as well as for assassinations of other individuals from October 2004 to December 2005. In August 2020, the court convicted Salim Jamil Ayyash, a Hezbollah member, in absentia, and the STL closed in 2023.