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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Deadly blast in southern Lebanon
2006-09-05
A bomb blast near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon has seriously wounded a senior intelligence officer and killed four of his aides and bodyguards. Officials said Samir Shehadeh's car was hit by a remote-controlled bomb as he drove past the village of Rmeileh. Col Shehadeh was an investigator into the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in early 2005.
The incident comes amid a fragile truce after 34 days' bitter fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

Both vehicles of Col Shehadeh's two-car convoy were riddled with shrapnel. Police sealed off the area and began collecting evidence. Government officials said Col Shehadeh was taken to hospital in Sidon and his condition was stable.

Lebanon's acting information minister told Lebanese TV that one of the dead bodyguards had been acting as a decoy for Col Shehadeh in the lead car. "It is obvious from the decoy operation that saved him that that there were expectations (of an attack)," Ahmed Fatfat told Future TV.
He knew they were out to get him. "They", of course meaning Syria. This is almost a trademark of their's, the bomb beside the road.
The bombing comes two weeks before the UN chief investigator is to submit a report on his latest findings in the Hariri investigation to the UN. The Lebanese government is expected in the next few weeks to authorise an international tribunal to bring those responsible to justice. Col Shehadeh is reported to have been involved in the arrest four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals last August in connection with the investigation.

Earlier UN investigator's reports have also implicated top Syrian officials in the Hariri killing, although Damascus has denied any role in it or the string of bombings targeting anti-Syrian figures which followed the 14 February 2005 assassination. Mr Hariri's death galvanised Lebanese opposition to Syria, which subsequently bowed to pressure to pull its troops out of Lebanon after nearly 30 years of military presence.

Additional: Police Chief Antoine Shakhur told reporters Tuesday that Shehade had been only lightly wounded in the blast that targeted his convoy. Four bodyguards died, however, while three others were wounded along with an engineer who was working on the road, hospital sources said.
Perhaps the "engineer" should be questioned as to what kind of roadwork he was doing. The bomb that got Hariri was buried in the road.
Investigators believed that an explosive charge was positioned along the road and detonated as ShahadeÂ’s four-wheel-drive vehicle passed. A second car was also damaged by the blast.

It was the first such attack since May 26, when a leader of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad in Lebanon and his brother were killed in Sidon, the main city in southern Lebanon, after a bomb was placed under their vehicle. On December 12, 2005, lawmaker and journalist Gibran Tueni was killed by a roadside bomb in Beirut along with three other people. Lebanon was rocked by a string of attacks against prominent anti-Syrian figures following HaririÂ’s assassination.

Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz, who heads an inquiry into that murder, has pointed to possible links between HaririÂ’s death and 14 other attacks against anti-Syrian personalities in Lebanon since October 1, 2004.
They just can't help themselves.
Posted by:Steve

#3  Between the tender mercies of Nasrallah and Assad, Lebanon almost must be missing those tranquil days of Israeli occupation.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-09-05 14:15  

#2  we engineers are good at directing and designing work for others to do...not do it ourselves. That's why we went to school, dammit. If was actually working, he's lying about being an engineer :-)
Posted by: Frank G   2006-09-05 13:57  

#1  Syria. Using the Lebbo "confusion" to take a shot at one of the people who helped to nail them. But it's purely revenge... Too late, gents, the writing's on the wall. You can't stop it and nobody's buying what you're selling, anyway. And, BTW, nobody's gonna miss you when you're gone, either. Time to load up a plane and head for Switzerland, pencil-neck.
Posted by: flyover   2006-09-05 09:16  

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