* Senior Lebanese anti-Assad security official killed
* Sunni Muslims protest, burn tyres across country
* Army reinforces positions in capital
* Iranian minister to visit Beirut
By Oliver Holmes
BEIRUT, Oct 20 (Reuters) – Lebanese troops reinforced road
junctions and official buildings in Beirut on Saturday and the
government met to mull a response to the car bomb killing of a
senior intelligence official opposed to Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad.
Brigadier-General Wissam al-Hassan, who led an investigation
that implicated Syria and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in the
assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005,
and seven other people were killed by the explosion in a central
district of the capital on Friday afternoon.
Lebanese politicians accused Assad of being the attack,
which deepened fears that the sectarian-tinged civil war in
neighbouring Syria was being carried into Lebanon.
Hassan, a Sunni Muslim, had helped uncover a bomb plot that
led to the arrest and indictment in August of a pro-Assad former
Lebanese minister – a setback for Syrian influence in Lebanon.
Sunni Muslims took to the streets and burned tyres across
Lebanon over Friday night and Saturday morning to protest
against the bombing, which revived memories of the carnage of
Lebanon’s own civil war. The blast also wounded about 80 people.
Protesters blocked roads to the international airport and in
the northern, mostly-Sunni city of Tripoli. Rallies were also
held and roads closed in the eastern Bekaa Valley and in the
southern town of Sidon.
At a roadblock in south Beirut, a dozen unidentified gunmen
in civilian clothes were seen standing next to the burning
tyres.
Soldiers and police guarded street corners in Beirut’s
Ashrafiyeh, the mainly Christian district where the bomb
exploded during rush hour, and at Martyrs’ Square in the centre.
The Beirut Star newspaper said the perpetrators clearly
aimed to force Lebanon into a new round of chaotic violence.
“If the goal was to divert attention from the events in
Syria, then people should remember this well and head off any
attempt to take Lebanon further into tension and civil strife,”
it said.
The late Hariri’s son, Saad al-Hariri, accused Syria’s Assad
of being behind the bombing. Lebanon’s opposition March 14 bloc
called on Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government, which
includes ministers from Hezbollah, to resign.
The head of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces,
Major-General Ashraf Rifi, described Hassan’s death as a “huge
blow” and warned that further attacks were likely.
“We’ve lost a central security pillar,” he told Future
Television. “Without a doubt, we have more sacrifices coming in
the future. We know that, but we will not be broken.”
IRANIAN VISIT
More than 30,000 people have been killed in Syria since a
Sunni-led popular uprising against Assad, a member of the
Shi’ite-linked Alawite sect, broke out 19 months ago.
International powers fear the conflict could inflame
rivalries across the region as it intensifies.
Lebanon’s religious communities are divided between those
supporting Assad and those backing the rebels and the country
had already felt the heat prior to Friday’s bombing.
Sunnis and Alawites have clashed in Tripoli while the
northern end of the Bekaa Valley, which borders Syria, has
suffered from shelling and incursions.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, whose country is
a powerful backer of Assad and Hezbollah, condemned the bombing
and said he planned to visit Beirut on Saturday.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry, in a statement on its website,
suggested Israel was to blame for the attack. A senior Israeli
official dismissed the suggestion as “beyond pathetic”.
Hassan, who had returned to Lebanon on Thursday night from
Germany, had helped uncover many assassination attempts against
anti-Syrian figures in Lebanon. He himself escaped several
attempts on his life.
Two Syrian officers, including General Ali Mamlouk, the head
of Syria’s national security bureau, were indicted along with
Lebanon’s former information minister Michel Samaha in August
over a plot allegedly aimed at stoking violence in Lebanon.
The indictments were an unprecedented move against its more
powerful neighbour, a dominant player in Lebanese affairs for
decades.
As well as being the brains behind the Samaha investigation,
Hassan led the investigation into Rafik Hariri’s murder seven
years ago and uncovered evidence that implicated Syria and
Hezbollah – a charge they both deny. An international tribunal
accused several Hezbollah members of involvement in the murder.
“OUR PROTECTOR”
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, whose party still formally
supports Mikati’s government although he is bitterly critical of
Assad and Hezbollah, said Hassan’s death left Lebanon unsafe.
“He was our protector. This is a harsh blow but we will not
be scared and we should not accuse anyone inside Lebanon so we
don’t give Bashar (al-Assad) an excuse to seize the country,” he
said.
Syria sided with different factions during the 1975-1990
civil war and deployed troops in Beirut who stayed until 2005.
Despite the accusations from Lebanese politicians, both the
Assad government and Hezbollah condemned the bombing. Syria’s
information minister called it a “terrorist act”.
The bombing also heightened concern among Western powers –
who have strongly criticised Assad and called on him to quit –
that the Syria war could ignite the region.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Hassan’s
killing was “a dangerous sign that there are those who continue
to seek to undermine Lebanon’s stability”.
French President Francois Hollande urged Lebanese
politicians to stay united and prevent attempts to destabilise
the country. The Vatican and the European Union also condemned
the attack.
