Terror in Lebanese capital of Beirut - 8 kills: Suspicions surround Syria and Israel

 

Intelligence chief Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, was killed in yesterday’s attack in Ashrafieh. He had eradicated Syrian Israeli and Salafi espionage and terrorist cells. Protests in many cities across Lebanon. Politicians and people accuse Assad. The UN envoy’s attempts at a truce before the end of the month. Condolences pour in from across the world, including the Vatican. Patriarch Rai’s appeal for unity and coexistence.

Beirut (AsiaNews) - Lebanon's security services are leaving no stone unturned, including tracks leading to Syrian or Israeli involvement in yesterday's terrorist attack which destroyed a part of the Ashrafieh district and killed eight people, among them security forces chief, Gen. Wissam al-Hasan.

In comments published this morning in the As-Safir newspaper, the head of the security forces, Ashraf Rifi, said that "all options are open, but we are looking for tangible evidence." He admitted that the killing of al-Hasan can be tied to the arrest of former minister Michel Samaha, who has close ties with Damascus, but also pointed out that the terrorist act may be a response to the unveiling of an Israeli spy network in Lebanon, or the hunt for terrorist cells in the country.

Wissam al-Hasan (pictured) is the most prominent victim of the eight people killed after a powerful explosion (60-70kg of explosives) in a street adjacent to Sassine square, that left 78 people injured and extensive damage to buildings .
Al-Hasan had returned to Lebanon the day before and no one knew of his arrival. His movements were always preceded by communiqués to throw would-be attackers off track. A brilliant analyst, and young (47 years old), al-Hasan was to succeed Rifi in 2013. Knowing that he was a key target, he took every precautions. His wife and two children had been transferred to Paris.

The general is credited with having dismantled pro-Israeli, pro-Syrian and Salafi cells of espionage and terrorism.

Last night, the Druze Walid Jumblatt and Sunni Saad Hariri immediately pointed the finger at Syria, as principal author of the attack. The Sunni population has now launched protests in several cities of Lebanon: Beirut, Saida, Bekaa, Tripoli, Kamed el-Loz, Bire.

Wissam al-Hasan

The assassination of Wissam al-Hasan risks creating a deeper furrow between the Lebanese communities, already divided between those who support the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and those who want his departure from the scene.

The Sassine square car bomb (but intelligence has not excluded the possibility of a suicide bomber) seems to confirm fears that the Syrian civil war can spread to Lebanon and the region.

Yesterday's massacre came just as UN peace envoy Lahdar Brahimi, was in Damascus, groping for a truce on the occasion of Eid, which begins Oct. 26. He even got Iran - Syria's major sponsor - to accept a possible fall of Assad, provided it was through elections.

The international community unanimously condemned the attack that has attempted to "destabilize Lebanon." Statements of condemnation and condolences emerged from the UN Security Council, the European Union, Canada, Brazil, USA, France.

The Vatican, through press office director Fr. Lombardi, condemned the "absurd murderous violence" and appealed that it not become "an opportunity to foster further violence." Only a month ago Benedict XVI paid a visit to Beirut, pointing to Lebanon as a model of coexistence between religions and ethnicities, important for the Middle East and the entire world.
The Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, condemned the "criminal acts that remind us of days we thought long behind us." From the Vatican, where he is participating in the Synod on the New Evangelization, he urged all Lebanese to remain "united against the forces of evil that want to create dissension among us" and to "preserve Lebanon as a model of coexistence."

Even Hezbollah - suspected by many Lebanese as the authors of the attack - condemned the crackdown, expressing "great shock at this terrible crime of terror." Syria, for its part, denounced the massacre as "vile", "unjustifiable" and "terrorist." Iran today condemned the terrorist explosion which "seeks to create divisions between the different Lebanese groups, to the detriment of the interests of Lebanon." "Without a doubt - continues the statement of the Foreign Ministry - the main enemy of the Lebanese people is the Zionist regime."

This morning, Marwan Charbel, Lebanese minister of the interior, revealed that al-Hasan had received death threats long before he revealed the Samaha affair.