What happened in Halba? Amer sent me this email and it has useful information: I should have said that some of the people in the SSNP office were civilians, like that immigrant from Australia: "Are you sure about the tag you gave SSNPers in Halba (civilians)??? By most accounts I read (including the one by a massacre survivor,) there were several hours of intense clashes before the massacre. The version I found most believable: Khalid Dahir and the Mufti's men wanted to do to the Halba SSNP HQ what they did to opposition offices in Tripoli and other parts of the North (burn and sack it). As the demonstration (along with many armed men) advanced, the local SSNP members barricaded in their HQ and fought back, there were several hours of clashes, with RPGs, mortars etc... several were killed in the fighting including -at least- two FMers and two of the SSNP fighters.Then, a truce was proposed (through a local Sheikh) to hand over the HQ and guarantee the men's safety. You know the rest of the story (according to most account, the videos we saw were "early" ones, before the FMers brought axes and started cutting the dead into pieces. Reportedly, a soldier (they were watching) approached them asking to hand over the bodies and stop the mutilation, a fighter answered "just give us 15 more minutes," and they got it.) They also used creative ways to kill the wounded (those who surrendered and were not wounded were shot and killed right away at very close range.) Reportedly, they smashed the head of one with a rock, and placed the other in a car and burned it. The Army until two days ago was refusing to hand over the bodies to the families as to not incite revenge killings when the families see the mutilated state of the dead." But when you read this disturbing account, please remember that Robert Worth of the New York Times has officially declared the Hariri militia in Lebanon a "myth." So the killers here are mythical killers.