BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 22 (UPI) -- Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr accused Palestinian extremist groups based in a refugee camp in south Lebanon of attempting to assassinate him. Speaking in a television interview Thursday night Murr said, "Outlawed terrorist groups located in certain places in Lebanon tried to kill me." Murr, who escaped a car bomb explosion that targeted his convoy 11 days ago, refrained from naming the organization, saying only that it was based in Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near the port city of Sidon in south Lebanon.
A series of political assassinations has rocked Lebanon since the Feb. 14 slaying of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In June an anti-Syria journalist, Samir Kassir, and the former head of the Lebanese Communist Party, George Hawi, were killed in bomb explosions inside their cars. |