LEBANON: Anti Syrian parliamentarian dead in Lebanon blast which claims at least 10 lives

Record ID: 357312

  • Title: LEBANON: Anti Syrian parliamentarian dead in Lebanon blast which claims at least 10 lives
  • Date: 14th June 2007
  • Summary: (BN14)BEIRUT, LEBANON (JUNE 13, 20070 (REUTERS) WIDE OF SECURITY FORCES OUTSIDE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL MAN CRYING ON THE PHONE GIRL SPEAKING THE PHONE RELATIVES GATHERED OUTSIDE THE HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 29th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lebanon
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA52KBAF1MRTMVPAEUCB9QX1OD8
  • Story Text: A powerful car bomb killed anti-Syrian Lebanese politician Walid Eido and nine other people on Wednesday (June 13) in the sixth blast to strike the Beirut area in less than four weeks, security sources said.
    The bomb, concealed in a parked vehicle, detonated as Eido's car drove by near the seafront in the Lebanese capital. One of his sons was among the dead. At least 11 people were wounded.
    Eido, 64, belonged to the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of Saad al-Hariri, which controls the government.
    He had been a vocal opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon and an ally of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was assassinated by a suicide truck bomber in February 2005 on the same seafront corniche just over a kilometre away.
    Saad al-Hariri said those who killed his father, Rafik al-Hariri were behind the assassination of Eido. He said: "The martyrs Walid Eido and his son the flower of martyrs the lawyer Khaled and others have joined the trail of martyrs for freedom in the battle to turn Lebanon into a submissive country and hijack its decision .. its the same hands which assassinated Rafik al Hariri and other martyrs, its the hands of evil and its apparatus."
    Eido was killed just three days after a U.N. Security Council resolution came into effect setting up an international tribunal to try suspects in Hariri's assassination.
    Saad al-Hariri and his political allies say Syria was behind the ex-prime minister's killing and later attacks. Damascus denies any involvement. Eido's death brought to seven the number of anti-Syrian figures killed in Lebanon since 2005.
    The blast hit near an amusement park and a football club, setting a car ablaze and shattering windows at a nearby restaurant. It hurled the bodies of Eido and his son across the road and into a football ground, witnesses said.
    Eido's death was likely to fuel tension between Siniora's Western-backed government and the pro-Damascus opposition led by the Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah group.
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