Black Saturday (Arabic: السبت الأسود) was the massacre of about 300 Lebanese Muslims and Druze in Beirut by Phalangists on Saturday 6 December 1975, during the early stages of the Lebanese Civil War. It set a precedent for later outbreaks such as the Battle of the Hotels, the Karantina massacre and the Damour massacre. The killings were led by Joseph Saade, a Phalangist whose son was killed in Fanar earlier that day, when four young Christian Phalangists (Kataeb) were assassinated by Muslims on the Fanar road in Lebanon. The massacre set Beirut ablaze, and accelerated the civil war.