By SAM DAGHER
BEIRUT—Lebanon's capital was rattled Friday by its most destructive bombing in nearly four years, killing an intelligence chief who has been a longtime adversary of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and stoking fears that Lebanon is being drawn into the war in neighboring Syria.
Doors were blown from hinges and windows shattered nearly a mile away when a midafternoon explosion ripped though a back street in the Beirut district of Ashrafieh, killing at least eight people.
Among them, said the Lebanese government, was Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, the head of the intelligence unit of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, an ally of Lebanon's main anti-Assad political coalition and a central figure in years of probes that have attempted to link Syria's Assad regime with plots and deadly strikes inside Lebanon.
Scenes a Beirut Car Bombing
No one claimed responsibility for the attack. But in an indication of how Syria's deadly divide runs through Lebanon as well, several Lebanese politicians and media outlets immediately characterized the killing as an assassination carried out by Damascus.
Syria's government condemned the attack, as did its ally in Lebanon's government, Hezbollah.
Like the core of those who oppose President Assad—in Syria, as well as in Lebanon—Gen. Hassan was a Sunni Muslim. He played a pivotal role, in early August, in uncovering an alleged plot by a pro-Assad Lebanese politician to carry out a bombing campaign in Lebanon, allegedly at the behest of senior Syrian regime security officials.
Gen. Hassan, 47 years old, was also instrumental in aiding the international tribunal that has been investigating the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, a Sunni. Gen. Hassan implicated Syria authorities in that attack, an allegation Damascus has strenuously denied.
Angry youth in several Sunni areas across Lebanon, including Beirut, took to the streets burning tires and blocking traffic, according to Lebanese media. It reported gunfire in the restive northern Lebanon city of Tripoli, scene of previous deadly clashes between Sunnis and Shiite-linked Alawites loyal to President Assad.
Largely, however, street reactions appeared muted, an apparent reflection of heightened local security and fear and unease among many Lebanese.
"One goal of the enemy is to try to divide the Lebanese," said telecommunications minister Nicolas Sehnaoui. "The biggest mistake we can make is to fall into that trap."
The U.S., issuing a strong condemnation, characterized the attack as a terrorist strike. "The assassination of the Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, who was a strong defender of Lebanon's security and its people, is a dangerous sign that there are those who continue to seek to undermine Lebanon's stability," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The United Nations Security Council also strongly condemned the blast and "any attempt to destabilize Lebanon through political assassinations," demanding an "immediate end to the use of intimidation and violence against political figures."
Lebanon's state news agency said the bombing, which came shortly before 3 p.m. local time, appears to have been caused by more than 60 pounds of explosives in a parked car that detonated as Gen. Hassan's car passed by on a back street off the busy Sassine Square in Ashrafieh, a predominantly Christian neighborhood. Gen. Hassan's main office is in a fortified barrack on the edge of the area.
The blast tore off balconies and gutted apartments in several buildings and reduced to twisted metal the vehicles that had been parked nearby.
Some residents were trapped in the flames that followed the attack, witnesses said. The blast killed at least eight people and wounded 78, according to the Lebanese state news agency.
The attack went to the core of the close but troubled relationship between Syria and Lebanon, two countries with diverse populations and deep tensions between Sunnis and Shiites. For decades, Lebanon existed in the shadow of bigger and stronger Syria, where many believe the two countries should be one. Syrian forces entered Lebanon in 1976 to help end a civil war there, and Damascus quickly became the main arbiter among Lebanon's feuding factions.
Mr. Hariri's 2005 assassination triggered a popular backlash in Lebanon that culminated in Syrian troops' withdrawal. But Lebanon's government has remained fractious and weak, with the country at the center of a battle for influence between the region's Shiite center, Iran, and Sunni Gulf states. As Syria has descended into a conflict that is now increasingly seen as a proxy war between these same regional powers, the fragile Lebanese state has become an increasing point of concern.
Almost an hour after the bombing—and well before it was announced that one of its victims was Gen. Hassan—many opponents of the Syrian regime rushed to the scene.
"This is the gift of Bashar al-Assad and his devils," said Elias Atallah, a former Lebanese lawmaker and member of the anti-Assad coalition known as March 14.
Gen. Hassan's death puts a spotlight on Lebanon's Sunni community, whose leaders have appeared to take a back seat to the Shiite-led Hezbollah and its allies in government and have been particularly frustrated with their government's seeming impotence to take a stand on the war in Syria.
Lebanese lawmakers and analysts described Gen. Hassan as a star in the intelligence apparatus who had led a significant improvement in its capabilities—both domestically on crime and security issues, and in more controversial operations, including a crackdown in 2006 on a radical Sunni Islamist group operating in Lebanon.
Gen. Hassan was a protégé of the assassinated prime minister's son, Saad Hariri, who served as prime minister until last year and is currently living in Paris for security reasons. "I am sure that the Lebanese people will not remain silent toward this heinous crime, and I, Saad Rafik Hariri, vow not to remain silent and rest," he said on Future TV, which is owned by his party.
Syria's state news agency, Sana, carried a terse statement. "Such terrorist acts are condemned and unjustifiable wherever they happen," it quoted Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zou'bi as saying.
Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite political party and militia in Lebanon, issued a statement strongly condemning the attack and calling it an attempt to "undermine national unity."
Near the scene of the bombing, a domestic worker with bloodied yellow overalls was seen holding the hand of a dazed woman speaking on her cellular phone.
At the nearby Rizk Hospital, where many of the wounded were taken, George Haddad carried his five-year-old granddaughter, Christa, her dress smeared in blood.
Mr. Haddad said Christa was at home with her mother, Samar, when the bomb went off. He said Samar was badly wounded and was undergoing surgery to her eye and neck.
"What should we expect if this happens to us inside our homes," Mr. Haddad asked. He lay the blame squarely on Lebanon's feuding political factions. "They have wrecked the country," he said.
Toward evening, the Lebanese army sealed off the entrance to the predominantly Sunni area of Tarik al-Jdideh after residents burned tires to denounce the bombing.
Members of the youth branch of the anti-Syrian Future Movement marched toward the parliament, saying they were calling on the government to resign.
"The Lebanese people are afraid," said Regina Kantara, the local director for the World Council for the Cedars Revolution, a lobby group focused on limiting Syria's political influence in Lebanon. "If security establishments are being assassinated, who will protect us?"
She added: "Everything that happens in Lebanon is related to Syria, during times of crisis or not."
—Nour Malas, Nada Raad and Rima Abushakra in Beirut contributed to this article.Write to Sam Dagher at sam.dagher@wsj.com
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario