Car bomb kills anti-Syrian MP, 9 others in Beirut
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Car bomb kills anti-Syrian MP, 9 others in Beirut
By Tom Perry and Yara Bayoumy
Reuters
Wednesday, June 13, 2007; 2:00 PM
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A powerful car bomb killed anti-Syrian Lebanese
politician Walid Eido and nine other people on Wednesday in the sixth
blast to strike the Beirut area in less than four weeks, security
sources said.
The bomb, concealed in a parked vehicle, detonated as Eido's car drove
by near the seafront in the Lebanese capital. One of his sons was
among the dead. At least 11 people were wounded.
Eido, 64, belonged to the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of
Saad al-Hariri, which controls the government.
He had been a vocal opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon and an
ally of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was assassinated by
a suicide truck bomber in February 2005 on the same seafront corniche
just over a kilometer away.
Eido was killed just three days after a U.N. Security Council
resolution came into effect setting up an international tribunal to
try suspects in Hariri's assassination.
Saad al-Hariri and his political allies say Syria was behind the ex-
prime minister's killing and later attacks. Damascus denies any
involvement. Eido's death brought to seven the number of anti-Syrian
figures killed in Lebanon since 2005.
The United States and France deplored Eido's assassination.
"We stand with the people of Lebanon and Prime Minister (Fouad)
Siniora's government as they battle extremists who are trying to
derail Lebanon's march to peace, prosperity and a lasting democracy,"
said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security
Council.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said his country stood by
Lebanon "in the face of these repeated attempts at destabilization."
He urged the Lebanese to resume dialogue.
The blast hit near an amusement park and a football club, setting a
car ablaze and shattering windows at a nearby restaurant. It hurled
the bodies of Eido and his son across the road and into a football
ground, witnesses said.
The bomb was stronger than the five that had exploded in and around
Beirut in the past month, security sources said. Those blasts killed
two people.
Eido's death was likely to fuel tension between Siniora's Western-
backed government and the pro-Damascus opposition led by the Shi'ite
Muslim Hezbollah group.
Parliamentarian deputy Wael Abou-Faour accused Syria of killing his
colleague.
"Walid Eido was a symbol of democracy in Lebanon. (He) was
assassinated because there is a decision by the Syrian regime to
terminate the March 14 bloc," Abou-Faour told Al Arabiya television,
referring to the Hariri-led coalition. "The Assad regime did not have
enough of the blood of the free in Lebanon."
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is a pro-Syrian ally of Hezbollah,
condemned the killing.
"No individual, group, organization or party using terrorism and
organized crime will be able to make Lebanon an arena for unrest,
strife, wars and score-settling," he said.
Tension was already high in Lebanon, where the army has been battling
Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in the north for more
than three weeks.
Two Lebanese soldiers were killed in fresh fighting at the Nahr al-
Bared camp on Wednesday, security sources said.
Al Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam militants attacked Lebanese army
posts set up at newly seized territory in the outskirts of Nahr al-
Bared camp overnight and in the early morning, they said.
Army units, which had seized two militant positions in heavy fighting
on Tuesday, responded with dozens of artillery rounds, sending smoke
rising from the camp's cinderblock buildings.
The battle for the camp, Lebanon's bloodiest internal violence since
the 1975-1990 civil war, has killed 144 people -- 62 soldiers, 50
militants and 32 civilians -- since May 20.
(Additional reporting by Nadim Ladki and Laila Bassam)