Fuad Shemali

Fouad El Chemali was one of the principal actors behind Black September and the 1972 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum. Born to a Lebanese christian-maronite family in 1936, he studied law at the University of St. Joseph in Beirut. He joined the SSNP and later on the PLO, to become a co-founder of Black September. He died in Geneva,on August 15th 1972.

Black September's first leader was Ali Abu Iyad (real name Mohammed Mustafa Shyein), a deputy of Al Fatah Boss Yasser Arafat. Iyad was wounded, captured and executed in July 1971 after a firefight between guerrillas and Hussein's army. But probably the organization's best-known leader was Fouad El Chemali, who masterminded some of the group's earlier operations before he died of cancer in 1972.