| The Lebanese army said on Thursday it had defused an explosive device in Beirut in an area that houses United Nations offices and a Palestinian refugee camp. “A rocket with a set timer was found this morning near the City Stadium in Bir Hassan,” the statement said. “Bomb disposal experts defused it and an investigation is under way.” The City Stadium is in the southern sector of the capital, between the Palestinian refugee camp of Sabra and a residential area where UN offices are also located. The incident comes amid fears of violence in the capital following a string of explosions in recent months that have scared away summer tourists. It also comes amid a continuing nine-month political crisis between the Western-backed government and the Syrian-backed opposition and a standoff between the army and Islamists at a refugee camp in the north. The most recent bombing in Beirut was in June and killed anti-Syrian MP Walid Eido. Damascus denied any involvement in the attack. US President George W Bush has meanwhile ordered freezing of US assets of those whom Washington accuses of undermining the Lebanese government. |