Agence France Presse
March 18 2005

Car bomb rocks Beirut, eight injured
Henri Mamarbachi
Posted Sat, 19 Mar 2005

A car bomb rocked a Christian suburb of the Lebanese capital on
Saturday, injuring eight and causing extensive damage a month after
the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri sent shockwaves
through the country.

The explosion, which happened shortly after midnight (10.30pm GMT on
Friday), was the first attack since the February 14 assassination,
and the first sign of violence which some fear will surround the
forthcoming anniversary of the start of the devastating 15-year civil
war in April 1975.

“The explosion of the Japanese Datsun-make car left eight people
slightly injured,” a police spokesperson said.

Extensive damage caused

The blast caused extensive damage in the northern Beirut residential
neighbourhood of Jdeide, along a coastal road, damaging several
buildings and destroying cars parked in the street where the
explosion took place.

Police sealed off the neighbourhood, and the blast, which could be
heard in central Beirut, brought many people out into the street who
had been woken from their sleep.

“The… car belonged to an Armenian living in the building in front
of which the explosion took place. The explosive was placed under his
vehicle,” a police spokesperson said.

“An inquiry has been opened by the police who went immediately to the
scene,” he added.

Syria pulling out troops

The explosion was the first serious incident since the February
assassination of Hariri, which led neighbouring Syria, which has
dominated Lebanon for the past 30 years, to bow to international
pressure to start pulling out its troops.

Syria had an estimated 14 000 soldiers in Lebanon when the
redeployment began on March 7.

The Syrian army Thursday completed the first stage of the planned
pullback ahead of schedule, with about 4000 troops having returned
home.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last weekend gave a commitment to
re-deploy his ground troops and intelligence agents to the Bekaa by
the end of March, ahead of a final pullout, in compliance with a UN
Security Council resolution.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, meanwhile, said he expects a
complete withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon before legislative
elections are held, according to his spokesperson in New York, Fred
Eckhard.

Death of former premier

An estimated one million demonstrators poured into central Beirut
Monday in a spectacular rejection of Syria’s role in Lebanon, hurling
a potent challenge at the pro-Syrian Lebanese administration.

The death of Hariri also brought political turmoil to Lebanon and
ultimately deadlock, casting a cloud over the very elections in May
that are supposed to signal a new chapter in the country’s Syria-free
history.

Prime Minister a Syrian sympathiser

Reacting to public fury following the Hariri assassination, Prime
Minister Omar Karameh, considered a Syrian sympathiser, has so far
appealed in vain to the opposition to join him in a government of
national unity to prepare parliamentary elections later this spring.

The Lebanese opposition, made up largely but not exclusively of Sunni
Muslims, Christians and Druze, takes a far tougher line toward Syria
than the current government and has agitated strenuously for a speedy
departure from the country of the estimated 14 000 Syrian troops.

Reacting to public fury following the Hariri assassination Karameh
resigned on February 28, only to be called back to office ten days
later by President Emile Lahoud.

In his quest to form a government he has run into – and rejected –
opposition demands for the removal of Lebanon’s security chiefs and
an international probe into Hariri’s death.

AFP