Blast near Beirut kills 2
BEIRUT, Lebanon – An explosion tore through a business center in a Christian town near Beirut early today, killing at least two people in the second deadly attack against an anti-Syrian stronghold since the murder of Lebanon’s former prime minister last month.
The political turmoil touched off by the assassination of Rafik Hariri continued Tuesday as about 1,000 students shouting “Death to America!” and shredding a portrait of President Bush marched on the U.S. Embassy in Beirut to criticize what they said was Washington’s interference in Lebanon.
Hariri was an opponent of the 15-year Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and his assassination set off demands that Syria pull its troops out as demanded by a U.N. Security Council resolution and the United States.
Syria and its Lebanese allies in government denied opposition accusations of having roles in Hariri’s assassination. The killing brought Syria’s long domination of Lebanon into the spotlight. Syria’s military, which entered the country in 1976 during the 1975-‘90 civil war, made Damascus the power broker of Lebanese politics.
The latest attacks have raised concerns among some Lebanese that pro-Syrian elements might resort to violence to show the need for a continued presence by Damascus forces. More broadly, they have aroused fears of the return of the sectarian violence that characterized the civil war.
Shortly after midnight, a 45-pound bomb rocked the shopping center near Jounieh, the main Christian port city about 10 miles north of Beirut. Police said they believed it was placed at the center when it was closed.
Police said two people were killed and two wounded. LBC TV, the leading station in the country, said three people were killed and eight wounded. It was the second bombing since Saturday, when a car bomb in a northern Christian suburb of Beirut injured nine people.
The demonstrators on Tuesday, mostly supporters of the militant group Hezbollah, shouted “Death to Israel!” and waved Lebanese flags as they tried to push through barbed wire and a Lebanese army checkpoint.
It was the second anti-U.S. protest in eight days organized by student groups backing the pro-Syrian government.
Hariri’s Feb. 14 assassination sparked unprecedented anti-Syrian protests that led Prime Minister Omar Karami to dissolve his government and brought intense international pressure on Syria to completely withdraw its army from Lebanon. Damascus withdrew troops to eastern Lebanon earlier this month and has promised a total pullback.
Both sides are competing on the street to show they have the most public support.
A March 8 rally organized by Hezbollah drew a half-million people in a sign of its determination to ensure no future Lebanese government would consider peace with Israel or pressure the militant group to disarm.
The U.S. government blames the pro-Iranian Hezbollah for the 1983 bombing of its Beirut embassy which killed 63 people, 17 of them Americans.
On Tuesday, protesters called for the U.S. ambassador’s expulsion and tore a portrait of Bush, who has repeatedly called on Syria to remove its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon.