Angry Lebanese mourners attack Syrian workers
As a stunned Lebanon grieved, dozens of angry mourners attacked Syrian workers in the home town of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in a huge bomb blast, while others marched in streets draped with black banners.
Police said the toll from yesterday’s bombing on Beirut’s seafront was 14 dead and about 120 injured.
Responsibility claims by previously unknown Islamic militants were not considered credible, with Justice Minister Adnan Addoum warning they could be an attempt “to mislead the investigation”.
Security officials have not confirmed initial reports that said the blast was caused by a car bomb.
Syria, which has 15,000 troops in Lebanon and has for years decided policy in the country, has denied any involvement in the assassination. But Hariri’s political allies openly accuse it and its Lebanese government allies.
Billionaire Hariri’s family today also hinted at their possible role.
Asked the reason for the assassination, Hariri’s son, Saadeddine, replied: “It’s obvious. Isn’t it?”
He did not elaborate but last night he had sat next to a group of opposition politicians who held a symbolic meeting at Hariri’s Beirut mansion, then came out with a statement blaming Syria and the Lebanese government for the assassination.
Saadeddine said today he hoped justice will be served. “My father served Lebanon all his life, and we will keep serving Lebanon also, like him.”
Syria is the main power broker in Lebanon and Hariri, who served as Lebanon’s prime minister for 10 of the last 14 years, began moving in recent months closer to the opposition, which has waged an unprecedented political campaign to pressure Damascus into withdrawing its army from Lebanon.
“Go away, leave us alone. We don’t want anything from you. Enough blood,” Druse leader Walid Jumblatt, once a Syrian ally but now one of the most vocal opponents of Syria’s grip over Lebanon, said in clear reference to the Syrians.
Some of the anger was vented on the streets.
In Hariri’s home town of Sidon on southern Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast, dozens of angry demonstrators attacked Syrian workers today, slightly wounding five before police intervened.
Hundreds others marched in the streets. Black banners and pictures of the murdered leader covered the streets. Other mourners converged on the family’s southern residence to offer condolences.
Last night, a mob attacked the offices of the Lebanese branch of Syria’s ruling Baath party in Beirut with stones.
The streets of the capital were virtually empty today as Lebanon started three days of mourning.
Schools, banks and shops were closed.
Soldiers were deployed at some intersections to prevent any possible violence. The armed forces have been put on full alert and all leave was cancelled.
TV stations and radios played sombre music or readings from the Koran as the country prepared to bury Hariri, aged 60, after a funeral at a Beirut mosque tomorrow.
The assassination raised fears that the country might revert to the political violence of the 1975-90 civil war.
The US embassy in Beirut urged Americans to maintain a high level of vigilance and announced that it has prohibited nonessential travel off its fortified compound for 48 hours as it assesses security conditions.
