Syria has been blamed for a car bombing in Beirut that killed a prominent Lebanese security official and seven others.
Eight people died and more than 80 were wounded in the blast Friday. The government has declared Saturday a national day of mourning.
Demonstrators have closed roads around the country to protest the bombing.
Lebanese media report Wissam al-Hassan, chief of police intelligence, was the target of Friday’s car bomb.
Hassan led the investigation into a recent bomb plot that resulted in the arrest of a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician. He also led the probe that implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the killing of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The attack in the Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood killed Wissam al-Hassan, intelligence chief of the Internal Security Forces (ISF), who led an investigation that implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the assassination of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, Saad al-Hariri’s father.
He also headed an investigation over the summer that led to the arrest of former Information Minister Michel Samaha, an ally of Assad, accused of trying to help smuggle explosives into Lebanon.
Syrian condemnation
When asked who he thought was responsible for the killing, Saad al-Hariri, leader of the opposition March 14 alliance, replied: “Bashar Hafez al-Assad,” referring to the Syrian president.
“Who killed Wissam al-Hassan is as clear as day. Certainly the Lebanese people will not be silent over this heinous crime and I, Saad Hariri, promise that I will not be silent.”
Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon’s Druze leader, also accused Assad of being behind the attack.
“The Syrian regime is expert in political assassinations,” he told the AFP news agency. “Our response needs to be political. A president who burns Syria and is the executioner of Damascus does not care if Lebanon burns.”
Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi condemned what he called a “terrorist, cowardly” attack. Such incidents were “unjustifiable wherever they occur,” he said.
No one has claimed responsibility for Friday’s explosion. Some Lebanese officials blame Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for what they call Hassan’s assassination.
Meanwhile, the 15-member UN Security Council called the attack a “heinous act” and appealed to the Lebanese people in a statement to “preserve national unity in the face of such attempts to undermine the country’s stability”.
The US described the bombing as a “terrorist attack”.
Iran also also commented on the bombing, blaming it on its arch foe Israel.
Tehran condemned “the terrorist blast which was carried out by those who aim to create division between different Lebanese groups that never serves the interests of Lebanon,” spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a statement on the foreign ministry website.
“Undoubtedly, the main enemy of the Lebanese people and the region is the Zionist regime which benefits from instability and lack of security in the region.”
Lebanon has seen a recent increase in violence related to the bloody Syrian civil war that has spilled over the border.
Source:Thetimesofearth
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