In 1978, tensions were high in the North between the Kataeb and Marada parties, when the Kataeb tried to expend their power in the region. Bayeh attempted to open a Phalanges (Kataeb) office in Zgharta, before he was killed on June 8, 1978, by six armed men sent by Tony Franjieh. Six days later, on June 13, Kataeb leader Bashir Gemayel decided to strike back killing Franjyeh, his family (including his wife Vera Frangieh, their three-year-old daughter Jihane), and thirty other Marada bodyguards and aides, which came to be known as the Ehden Massacre.