| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Shock and anger in Lebanon over Hariri killing |
| 2005-02-15 |
| The assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri Monday in a powerful explosion that targeted his heavily guarded convoy on Beirut's seaside front, plunged the country into a state of shock. Hariri's angry supporters took to the streets in Beirut and his hometown city of Sidon in south Lebanon. Dozens of other rushed to the American University Hospital where the mutilated body of the 61-year-old former prime minister was taken from the explosion site. In the confusion that followed the bombing, it took a few hours before Hariri's death was confirmed. Along with the former prime minister his long-time bodyguard and eight other people were killed. About 100 others people, including pro-Hariri Parliament member Bassel Fleihan, were injured. Calling him a "great martyr," Hariri's supporters angrily denounced Syria and the Lebanese authorities, saying that President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Omar Karami should have provided greater security. They demanded the departure of Karami's government. The crowd also shouted slogans against Syria, describing it as "the enemy of God." Hariri's elder son, Bahaa Eddine, urged for restraint as he tried to calm the protestors who were asking for revenge. "It is not the time to say any word," Bahaa Eddine said. Syria was quick in denouncing "the terrible criminal act" as President Bashar Assad described it in a statement. Assad extended his country's support of the Lebanese cabinet and people "during such dangerous circumstances." While Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa called on the Lebanese to be strong and refuse "any internal strife or foreign intervention," Syria's Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah said "Lebanon's enemies are the ones to benefit from this crime." Qatar's al-Jazeera television broadcast a tape that showed a bearded man claiming to speak on behalf of a hitherto unknown Muslim fundamentalist group, "Jamaat al-Nasrat wal-Jihad-Bilad al-Sham" (Al Jihad's Partisans for Greater Syria). The group is believed to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. The man, identified as Ahmed Abu Adas, said he carried out the suicide attack against Hariri whom he described as "a Saudi agent" with the aim of "supporting our struggling brothers in the country of holy places (Saudi Arabia) and to avenge the martyrs who were killed by the security forces affiliated to the Saudi regime." He pledged that Monday's assassination would be "the prelude of many other martyrdom operations." Hariri has dual Lebanese-Saudi citizenship and is a close friend of the Saudi royal family. Abu Adas was quickly identified after he appeared on the tape by the Lebanese security forces, which said they stormed his house in Beirut's Tarik al-Jadida neighborhood. A statement by the Internal Security Forces said Abu Adas was a 24-year-old Palestinian who belongs to a Wahhabi group. It added that investigation were underway to determine whether he "detonated himself or participated with others" in assassinating Hariri. A well-informed source told United Press International that Abu Adas was believed to have carried out the suicide attack against Hariri and that DNA tests were being conducted to determine whether one of three mutilated and unidentified bodies belonged to him. The source said the bomber's neighbors saw him leave his home a few hours before the explosion. Such a claim by Abu Adas fell short of appeasing the Lebanese opposition which held the Lebanese authorities and Syria responsible for Hariri's assassination. In a statement after an emergency meeting at the palace of the late prime minister, opposition leaders, including Druze chief Walid Jumblat and former President Amin Gemayel said the Lebanese authorities and Syria as "the custody power in Lebanon" were "responsible of this and other similar crimes." The statement, read by former Ministry of Information Bassem Sabaa, called on the international community "to shoulder its responsibility toward Lebanon and form an international investigation committee" to look into "this crime in the absence of trust by the Lebanese in the authorities and all their services." The opposition leaders went a step further by calling for "the departure of the authority which lost its constitutional, popular and international legitimacy, the formation of a transition government and withdrawal of the Syrian troops" from Lebanon. Their appeal echoed a similar call by France which earlier Monday strongly condemned Hariri's assassination and demanded to open an international investigation. French President Jacques Chirac, who was a close and personal friend of Hariri for many years, was unlikely to keep quiet. Chirac, angered by Syria's pressures late last year that led to the renewal of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud's mandate for three more years, was believed to have been behind United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 which called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon and dismantling of militias -- in a clear reference to Syria, Hezbollah and the Palestinian factions. Many unanswered questions remain. Was Abu Adas the suicide bomber? Are al-Qaida followers that powerful in Lebanon? Was Abu Adas used by some intelligence service or would an investigation reveal -- if ever possible -- other culprits? Disclosing the real assassins could be the only way to calm the Lebanese opposition and the international parties which have been pressuring Syria to withdraw and ease its grip on Lebanon. Monday's assassination of Hariri has ended an important chapter in Lebanon's post-war history and may still the controversy about his ambitious post-war reconstruction program that left the country with more than $30 billion in debts. Despite such accusations, Hariri, who spent 12 years in power after he was first named prime minister in 1992, was recently honored by the United Nations for turning Beirut's war-devastated downtown into a model city. One of the last things Hariri did before he died was to stop for a cup of coffee at one of downtown's coffee shops in the area he helped rebuild in the city he loved. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 Regarding comment #5, recent knowledge based posts from this area go heavily against my 'some other Syrian may have done it' hypothesis. Thus my hypothesis is probably wrong. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-02-15 5:03:17 PM |
| #5 Assad Jr. may not be the Syrian who gave the hit order. He is not his father and doesn't have the full loyalty of his lackeys and flunkies. There are other Syrians who have independent power. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-02-15 12:46:02 PM |
| #4 I think the Dentist ought to be worried that the son now has 4 billion and a grudge. |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-02-15 11:37:57 AM |
| #3 The Telegraph has an Hariri obituary online. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2005-02-15 8:21:52 AM |
| #2 and Hariri, who is Sunni btw, was also a friend (although not drinking buddy close) of Assad senior. Hariri was known to have made disparaging comments about Hizbollah, the Moslem brotherhood and Palestinians. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-02-15 8:05:44 AM |
| #1 French President Jacques Chirac, who was a close and personal friend of Hariri for many years, was unlikely to keep quiet. that'll scare em. This Hariri guy is interesting. a "close friend of the Saudi royal family", "a close and personal friend" of Chirac. I guess when you are a billionaire, you have lots of "close and personal friends" in high places. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-02-15 4:42:07 AM |