LEBANON: Suicide bomber injures two on Syrian-Lebanese border; thousands of Lebanese gather in memory of Pierre Gemayel

Record ID: 278638

  • Title: LEBANON: Suicide bomber injures two on Syrian-Lebanese border; thousands of Lebanese gather in memory of Pierre Gemayel
  • Date: 29th November 2006
  • Summary: (BN13) BEIRUT, LEBANON (NOVEMBER 28, 2006) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING LEBANESE FLAGS PICTURE OF PIERRE GEMAYEL AND DEMONSTRATORS VARIOUS OF SECURITY AT RALLY VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS MARCHING PHALANGE PARTY FLAG AND DEMONSTRATORS MARCHING DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING FLAGS AND MARCHING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MIRNA FAROUN, LEBANESE CITIZEN, SAYING: "We are demonst
  • Embargoed: 14th December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3ST7VSJQYJ2QOJMRRG0E6Z4KR
  • Story Text: The military leader of a militant Islamist group blew himself up near a Syrian-Lebanese border crossing on Tuesday (November 28), wounding two Syrian police officers, officials said.
    The 28-year old Syrian man, Omar Hamra, was the military commander of al-Tawheed Wal Jihad, one of several Muslim militant organisations pursued by Syrian authorities, they said.
    The incident took place at 1.45 p.m. (1145 GMT) on the Syrian side of Jdaidet Yabous crossing point with Lebanon.
    "He was trying to cross the border with false documents. He shot at security forces with a pistol, tried to escape and then blew himself up with an explosives belt," the government news agency SANA said.
    Hours after the incident the border point was quiet and traffic was moving normally. Security officials took reporters to the site where they said Hamra blew himself up, about 1 km (1,000 yards) away from the border point used mainly by private passengers to cross to Lebanon.
    Parts of Hamra's body where lying on the ground and senior Syrian officials were at the site.
    Earlier on Tuesday (November 28), thousands of Lebanese citizens gathered in a memorial march from Sin el-Fil neighbourhood in Beirut, Pierre Gemayel's assassination site, to Martyrs' Square a week following his death to condemn his killing and the crisis in Lebanon.
    Lebanese Christian cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, an outspoken critic of Syria, was assassinated last Tuesday (November 21), when gunmen rammed their car into Gemayel's vehicle, then leapt out and riddled it with bullets.
    Gemayel is the sixth anti-Syrian figure that has been killed in less than two years in Lebanon.
    "We are demonstrating here to condemn what is happening in Lebanon. We want to know who is doing this in Lebanon and who killed all of these people from Pierre Gemayel to Rafik al Hariri," Mirna Faroun, who was at the demonstration, said.
    Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian leaders have called for solidarity in the struggle against Syria and its allies in Lebanon.
    The government says Syrian-backed opponents, led by Hezbollah, want to weaken it and to scupper an international tribunal under U.N. auspices that is being set up to try suspects in the suicide truck bombing that killed Hariri.
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