Fears Of Lebanon Instability After Killing
Sky News
Date: 02-14-05
There are fears of instability in Lebanon after one of its former leading political figures was assassinated.Former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was killed in a massive car bomb in Beirut.He was a billionaire who masterminded the country's reconstruction from its 1975-90 civil war.
The Lebanese army has said it is now on full alert and has drafted in patrols to the region.
Lebanese opposition figures, including Druze chief Walid Jumblatt and Christian ex-President Amin Gemayel, blamed Syrian and Lebanese authorities for Hariri's death and called on the government to resign.
A previously unknown Islamist group said in a video aired by Al Jazeera television it had carried out a suicide attack against Hariri because he supported the Saudi government.
Hours later Lebanese security forces said they had stormed the Beirut home of a man they identified as a Palestinian who read the claim of responsibilityon TV.
A Lebanese security source said Ahmed Aboul Adef was not in the house.
At least 14 others, including several of Hariri's bodyguards, died when his motorcade was blown up as it passed through an exclusive section of Beirut's seafront, four months after he resigned as prime minister.
Former Economy Minister Basil Fuleihan, also riding in the convoy, was critically wounded in the blast, the biggest in Lebanon since the civil war ended. At least 135 other people were hurt, officials said.
The United States condemned the killing and said it would consult with UN Security Council members about taking punitive measures against those responsible for the death of a man it said "worked tirelessly to rebuild a free, independent and prosperous Lebanon".
The explosion outside the St George Hotel gouged a deep crater in the road, ripped facades from luxury buildings and set cars ablaze on streets strewn with rubble and broken glass.
"Everything around us collapsed," a Syrian building worker at the site said. "It was as if an earthquake hit the area."
In a statement read to reporters after an emergency meeting, opposition figures called for Syrian forces to pull out of Lebanon before parliamentary elections in May, as well as a three-day strike.
Lebanese voices calling for Damascus to pull out its 14,000 troops have grown louder, backed by a UN Security Council resolution calling for their withdrawal.
Source
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