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  • Car bomb rocks Beirut, eight injured

    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
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