Accessibility links

Breaking News

Angry Mourners Bury Slain Lebanese Politician


Hundreds of mourners chanting anti-Hezbollah slogans buried former Lebanese minister Mohamad Chatah Sunday, two days after he was killed by a car bomb.

Chatah was a Sunni and a vocal critic of Hezbollah, as well as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

He was buried alongside former prime minister Rafik Hariri, killed in a 2005 bombing just a few hundred meters from the site of the Chatah attack.

Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora praised Chatah as a moderate and pledged peaceful action to "liberate the nation from occupation through weapons."



"We are still committed to our decision that we will face and we will confront. We are seekers of freedom and people of cause and justice. We have decided to march with the peaceful people of Lebanon towards a peaceful civic and democratic resistance... We have decided to liberate our country from the occupation of weapons, we have decided to liberate our country."



No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed Chatah and six others. It was the latest in a series of attacks in Lebanon, where the government is paralyzed by a standoff along sectarian lines.

Also Sunday, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Saudi Arabia has pledged $3 billion in aid to the country's armed forces.

In a nationally televised address, he said the Saudi grant would allow Lebanon to purchase weapons from France.

Lebanon's armed forces have been struggling to deal with violence spreading over the border from Syria's civil war.

###
XS
SM
MD
LG