Nine days before he was to take office, on September 14, 1982, Bachir was killed along with 25 others when a bomb exploded in the Kataeb headquarters in Achrafieh. The attack was carried out by Habib Shartouni, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), believed by many to have acted on instructions of the Syrian government of President Hafez al-Assad. The next day, Israel moved to occupy the city, allowing Phalangist members under Elie Hobeika's command to enter the centrally located Sabra and the Shatila refugee camp; a massacre followed, in which Phalangists killed between 762 and 3,500 (number is disputed) civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, causing great international uproar.