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Tensions High in Lebanon After Deadly Bombing

Smoke from burning tires rises over the Tripoli, Lebanon, skyline as people protest the killing Friday in Beirut of the country's intelligence chief, Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan and at least seven others, October 20, 2012.
Smoke from burning tires rises over the Tripoli, Lebanon, skyline as people protest the killing Friday in Beirut of the country's intelligence chief, Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan and at least seven others, October 20, 2012.

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Edward Yeranian

October 20, 2012

CAIRO — Tensions are high in Lebanon a day after a deadly bombing that killed the country's police intelligence chief and at least seven other people.  Militiamen forced businesses to close in the the coastal port city of Tripoli, and army troops shot at protestors blocking roads in the Bekaa Valley.   

Lebanese Army tanks deployed along strategic routes in the capital Beirut Saturday, removing burning tires and rubbish which protesters had dumped to block traffic. Army troops also fanned out in the coastal cities of Sidon and Tripoli, as well as across the Bekaa Valley.

Emergency Cabinet meeting

The deployments came after the Lebanese government met in an urgent session at the presidential palace in Baabda to discuss Friday's explosion which killed police Colonel, Wissam al-Hassan who was the senior police intelligence officer in the country.  

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati told journalists that he had informed President Michel Suleiman of his desire to resign, but that Suleiman had urged him to stay on a while longer:

He says that he expressed his desire not to continue in his post during a meeting with the president and the need to form a new government. But, he adds that the president urged him to be a patriot and remain while talks take place, in order to avoid a political vacuum.

Leaders of Lebanon's opposition March 14 coalition had called on the prime minister to resign, insisting that his government bore responsibility for Friday's assassination of Colonel Hassan. Mikati's government is supported by the pro-Syrian Hezbollah group.

Opposition accuses Syria

Opposition leaders Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblatt both accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of being behind the bombing which killed Hassan. Christian leader Samir Geagea noted that Friday's explosion was just the latest in a long series to target opposition leaders.

He says that the latest assassination is the 22nd or 23rd in a long string of killings. He notes that he too was targeted for assassination five months ago, along with another opposition leader. He adds that Colonel Hassan was killed for having uncovered a plot by a pro-Syrian politician to kill opposition leaders.

  • A Sunni Muslim man hangs up a poster with an image of senior intelligence official Wissam al-Hassan, in the Tariq al-Jadideh district in Beirut, October 20, 2012.
  • Protesters march in the Achrafieh neighborhood a day after a car bomb attack that killed Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan and at least seven others in Beirut, Lebanon, October 20, 2012.
  • A protester carries a tire to add to burning tires used as a roadblock to protest the death of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan in a car bomb attack, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, October 20, 2012.
  • Women walk through a road block of burning garbage containers laid by Sunni protesters angry at the killing of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan in Beirut, Lebanon, October 20, 2012.
  • Lebanese soldiers and security personnel walk in rubble after an explosion in central Beirut, October 19, 2012.
  • A Lebanese rescue worker, center, helps an wounded man at the scene of an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, October 19, 2012.
  • Firefighters extinguish fire at the scene of an explosion Beirut, Lebanon, October 19, 2012.
  • Lebanese rescue workers and civilians carry a wounded man from the scene of an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, October 19, 2012.
  • Lebanese Red Cross and civil defence personnel work at the site of an explosion in central Beirut, October 19, 2012.
  • Lebanese soldiers inspect damaged buildings at the scene of an explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, October 19, 2012.
  • Firefighters try to extinguish a fire as a car burns at the scene of an explosion in Ashafriyeh, central Beirut, October 19, 2012.
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Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science at the University of Paris, says that the latest assassination represents a major attempt to destabilize Lebanon.

He says that the killing of Hassan places Lebanon in the eye of the storm, and delivers a major blow to Western interests, since Hassan represents the independent wing of Lebanon's police force, which coordinated with Western nations. He argues that his death was a major victory for Iran and Syria in the region.

Peace envoy for Syria in Damascus

Meanwhile, in Damascus Saturday, United Nations-Arab League Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. Brahimi told reporters that he was working to arrange a three-day ceasefire and to lessen violence across the country:

He says that he has come to discuss the situation in the country and the need to reduce violence and the possibility of putting in place a three-day halt in the conflict for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

Over 30,000 Syrians have been killed since the start of a popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March of last year. Thousands of others have also disappeared and are being held in government detention centers across the country.

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Comments
     
by: Michael from: USA
October 21, 2012 2:20 AM
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It would be helpful if a new direction were to be given to the idea of democracy by non-violent developments. The gap between administration and cultural consent is very wide

by: Muhamad Latif Ali from: Beirut
October 20, 2012 7:38 PM
Report Comment
Saifa, I know you, you are Christian, I am Muslim, i was born in Zahle, i was told all my life that US/Israel/UK is there to enslave and torture us and scarifies us to their God. i was told that it is our obligation to kill them... are you saying that we were told lies???

by: H.2. from: Beirut, Lebanon.
October 20, 2012 4:12 PM
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the lie that will kill us is buried under a bigger lie that called the Hizbullah to "defend" us against Israel... the truth is that we never did need to be "defended" against Israel until Iran installed the Hizbullah in Lebanon. Hizbullah is a terrorist organization and it sucks the marrow of our country - the cancer in our body has become so big that now we live to feed the cancer...

by: Saifa Al Mugrah from: Lebanon
October 20, 2012 8:43 AM
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why does it take so long for the EU to understand and recognize that the Hizbullah is a pernicious metastatic terrorist organization that is bent on the internal destruction of Lebanon as a sovereign state?

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