Explosion injures Lebanese policeman
A Lebanese police officer and his bodyguard were wounded by a remote-controlled roadside bomb today in an apparent assassination attempt.
Lt. Col. Samir Shehade – who was involved in the investigation into the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister – was critically injured in the explosion, which went off as his car drove by the village of Rmaile, near the southern port city of Sidon.
The security officials said the roadside bomb was detonated by remote control as Shehade’s convoy travelled on a highway between two bridges.
Al-Arabiya TV station and Lebanese television said Shehade had been involved in the arrest in August last year of four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals in Lebanon. The four were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Today’s explosion came 10 days before UN chief investigator Serge Brammertz is to submit a report to the UN Security Council updating his findings on the Hariri investigation.
Previous reports have implicated top Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the killing, which rocked Lebanese politics and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, ending a 29-year-military presence.
Syria denies any role in the Hariri killing or the subsequent bombings.
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