Top official among 7 dead, 96 hurt in Beirut

AFP

BEIRUT A powerful car bomb in Beirut killed a senior official associated with the anti-Damascus camp in Lebanon on Friday, officials said, further increase tensions on the war in the neighbouring country.

The bombing on a busy square in the predominantly Christian district of Ashrafieh rush hour killed at least seven other people and wounded 96, Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil told reporters on the scene. An official said that the head of Lebanon's internal security forces, General Intelligence Wissam al Hassan, was among the dead.

Hassan was close to Saad Hariri, leader of the Lebanese opposition and hostile to the regime in Syria. He had been tipped to take over as ISF head at the end of this year.

The ISF played a central role in the arrest in August of former Lebanese information Minister Michel Samaha, who has close ties to Damascus and was charged with planning attacks in Lebanon and transport of explosives.

The Agency was also closely involved in the search for the arrest of those responsible for a host of attacks and murders between 2005 and 2008, starting with the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri.

Friday blast occurred (meters) just 200 metres from the headquarters of the Christian Party, the Phalanx, which is also anti-Damascus.

No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Nadim Gemayel quickly accused of orchestrating phalanx MP of Syria.

"The Syrian regime is not alien to such a explosions. This is an eminently political blast, "Gemayel told LBC television.

"This regime, that crumbling, trying to export his conflict to Lebanon," he said.

Syrian Minister of information Omran al Zohbi, meanwhile, condemned what he called a "terrorist, cowardly" attack, saying such incidents "are not justified where they occur." The incident has touched from painful memories of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war and the political turmoil that has much of the difficult post-war years linked to Syrian influence in the country.

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