A Lebanese anti-Syrian lawmaker with nine other people were
killed in an explosion in western Beirut Wednesday.
The bomb, concealed in a parked vehicle, detonated as lawmaker
Walid Aido's car drove by near the seafront in the Lebanese
capital. One of his sons and two bodyguards were among the dead. At
least 11 people were wounded.
According to the footage of al-Jazeera TV, the explosion
occurred in a busy street and set a car in heavy blaze. Several
other cars and nearby buildings were also badly damaged in the
blast.
Ambulances rushed to the scene and a women soaked in blood has
been shifted to hospital, the TV said.
Aido, 64, was a member of al Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc which
is headed by MP Saad Hariri, son of slain ex-Primier Rafik
Hariri.
He was the third member of the parliament to be assassinated
since Rafik Hariri and MP Bassil Fleihan were killed in 2005.
The other two were Gibran Tueini, son of An Nahar daily's
General Manager MP Ghassan Tueini and Pierre Gemayel, son of former
President Amin Gemayel.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is a pro-Syrianally
of Hezbollah, condemned the killing.
"No individual, group, organization or party using terrorism and
organized crime will be able to make Lebanon an arena for unrest,
strife, wars and score-settling," he was quoted by local press as
saying.
The explosion was the latest in a series to hit Lebanon in the
past three weeks as Lebanese army troops battled Islamic militants
in a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern part of the
country.
In a telephone interview with the Arabic daily Asharq Alawsat
published on Wednesday, a Fatah al-Islam leader threatened to kill
Lebanese politicians if the army staged a final showdown on its
militants in the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.
"Leading political figures on Lebanese territory would be
targeted by explosive charges and booby-trapped motorcycles if we
were confronted by the (Lebanese) government," said Abu Masaab from
his Nahr al-Bared hideout.
The Lebanese army have been fighting with the militants of Fatah
al-Islam holed up in the Nahr al-Bared camp since May 20.The
bloodiest internal violence since Lebanese 1975-1990 civil war has
killed more than 140 people, including at least 62 soldiers, more
than 50 militants and 32 civilians.
The Lebanese government said Fatah al-Islam is a terrorist
network aimed at destabilizing Lebanon.
(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2007)
