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Bomb in Beirut Kills Politician, a Critic of Syria and Hezbollah
Bomb in Beirut Kills Politician, a Critic of Syria and Hezbollah
(about 7 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A powerful bomb shook central Beirut on Friday morning, killing at least six people, officials said, and injuring dozens more. Among the dead was Mohamad B. Chatah, a former Lebanese finance minister and ambassador to the United States who was a vocal critic of the government in neighboring Syria and its ally Hezbollah, the Shiite Lebanese militia.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The bomb that tore through downtown Beirut on Friday killed a former Lebanese finance minister who was a prominent critic of the Syrian government — an attack that unleashed a storm of political recriminations that threaten the fragile entente keeping the Syrian war from spilling outright into Lebanon.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Chatah was the intended target of the bomb. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which was reminiscent of a string of unsolved bombings that have targeted anti-Syrian politicians over the past decade.
The former minister, Mohamad B. Chatah, was one of the closest advisers to Saad Hariri, son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, another opponent of the Syrian leadership whose assassination in a 2005 bombing touched off the March 14 protest movement that helped end Syria’s 29-year military presence in Lebanon.
Mr. Chatah was a prominent member of the Future bloc, the mainly Sunni party headed by Saad Hariri, son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose death in a 2005 bombing in Beirut sparked the March 14 protest movement, which helped end Syria’s 29-year military presence in Lebanon. Nohad al-Mashnouq, a member of Parliament in the Future bloc and a friend of Mr. Chatah’s, confirmed in an interview that he had been killed.
On Friday, Saad Hariri, himself a former prime minister, and his March 14 political allies quickly issued statements implying that the Syrian government or its ally Hezbollah was responsible for the bombing, which killed at least six people and wounded dozens, and drew parallels to the killing of Rafik Hariri, for which the international Special Tribunal for Lebanon has indicted four Hezbollah operatives.
The attack deepened the sense of instability in Lebanon, which is sharply divided over the war in neighboring Syria, with the Future bloc and its allies backing the opponents of President Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah supporting him. Lebanon has been without a functioning government for months because of a related political stalemate. Several car bombs have exploded in the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has many supporters, with Syrian insurgents or allied Lebanese militants being widely blamed for the attacks.
The allegations were electric in a country that is deeply divided over Syria, with Mr. Hariri’s Future bloc, the main Sunni party, backing the opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, and with Hezbollah, the Shiite militia that is also Lebanon’s most powerful political party, supporting him.
But Friday’s bombing was the first to tear through Beirut’s shiny renovated downtown since Mr. Hariri’s death, dealing a psychological blow to Beirut’s perennially resilient residents. The attack brought the violence to the heart of Beirut’s business district, bustling and decked in Christmas decorations, leaving the streets deserted.
Syria’s conflict has already touched Lebanon. Street fighting has erupted in the northern city of Tripoli. Syrian insurgents or their backers have been blamed for car bombings in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Hezbollah has sent fighters into combat alongside Syrian forces and accused the Future bloc of backing Lebanese militants who have joined insurgents across the border.
“This is a time when this plaza would be crowded, full of hope and colors, and now it’s black with this criminal act,” said Elie Ward, the manager of the nearby Sultan Ibrahim restaurant, watching as investigators in white jumpsuits examined a charred car chassis lying by a reflecting pool outside an office complex. “But Beirut is sending a message to all the world, that she will stay alive.”
In such a climate, Lebanese politicians on both sides of the divide said the country could ill afford the loss of Mr. Chatah, 62. He was regarded even by opponents as a moderate who could foster dialogue across political and sectarian lines, and was taking part in talks to end the political impasse that has left Lebanon without a government for months.
Saad Hariri, the Future leader, issued a statement implying that Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful political party, was to blame, and noting that the international tribunal that has indicted members of Hezbollah in his father’s killing is due to hold its opening sessions in The Hague in early January.
Hezbollah condemned the attack as an attempt to sow divisions in Lebanon, and its leaders, along with Syrian officials, called the allegations against them dangerous and irresponsible.
“Those who assassinated Mohamad Chatah are the ones who assassinated Rafik Hariri, and who want to assassinate Lebanon and humiliate and weaken the state,” he said. He called them “the same people who are running away from international justice,” and said they were “luring regional fires to our country.”
From 2005 to 2008, long before the conflict in Syria, Lebanon was riven by an acrimonious political struggle, with numerous assassinations of mainly anti-Syrian politicians and journalists. That conflict pitted Hezbollah and its Syrian allies against the Hariri coterie of pro-Western politicians — at one point, the entire March 14 parliamentary bloc holed up in the Phoenicia Hotel in Beirut for months, fearing assassination — and ended when Hezbollah gained the dominant share in Lebanon’s government.
Hezbollah, which denies involvement in the Hariri killing, issued a statement calling the bombing “a heinous crime” and calling for a full investigation by the security forces. It said the attack was part of “a series of crimes and bombings aimed at sabotaging the country, a sinful attempt to target stability and hit national unity, which only benefits the enemies of Lebanon.”
Today, those same divisions have been magnified by the war in Syria and the larger regional struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran that helps fuel it.
Hezbollah has for months called on the Lebanese to prevent violence from Syria from spilling over into their country; its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said that if the Lebanese want to settle their differences with violence, they should do so in Syria, where Lebanese Sunni militants have joined the rebels and where Hezbollah has sent its Shiite fighters to aid the government.
The bombing on Friday morning was the first to mar Beirut’s shiny, renovated downtown since Rafik Hariri’s killing, which occurred nearby. It dealt a psychological blow to a perennially resilient city and left the business district, normally bustling and sparkling with Christmas decorations, oddly silent.
Hezbollah has been seen as refraining from urging revenge for recent bombings that targeted its base in the southern suburbs, though the militant group is under pressure from some of its members to respond. Hezbollah’s supporters have accused the Future movement of sending arms to Syrian insurgents. Future is close to Saudi Arabia, one of the insurgents’ main international backers.
“This is a time when this plaza would be crowded, full of hope and colors, and now it’s black with this criminal act,” said Elie Ward, the manager of the restaurant Sultan Ibrahim, watching as investigators examined a charred car chassis. “But Beirut is sending a message to all the world, that she will stay alive.”
Mr. Chatah, in his last Twitter message, on Friday morning shortly before he was killed, was critical of Hezbollah, saying it sought to exercise the same power in Lebanon that Syria did during its occupation of the country, which ended in 2005.
Mr. Chatah, a prominent economist, had served as ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2000, worked at the International Monetary Fund and had been a spokesman for the Lebanese government. Born in Tripoli, he was married, with two children.
Hezbollah insists on maintaining its powerful militia independent of state institutions, which it says is necessary to counter Israel, but which its critics say it uses to impose its will on the country.
On his blog, he recently warned that Mr. Assad could never reform or restore stability to Syria, and that Mr. Assad’s ally Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, would prefer a prolonged and spreading war to letting him fall. That, he wrote, “will help terrorism flourish even more.”
Minutes after the blast, cars were aflame along a plaza in front of the Starco building complex, a downtown site notable for having survived unscathed through the civil war from 1975 to 1990, which gutted much of the surrounding area. Security officials were removing cellphones from two bodies lying on the ground.
He added, “Both the kind manipulated and used by the regime to blackmail the West and the ‘authentic’ strain that festers and spreads in open wounds, like opportunistic parasites.”
The explosion struck a few blocks from the waterfront site where Mr. Hariri was killed, the last bombing to hit the downtown area. Later, there was a hushed bustle at the scene as workers, several with bandaged wounds, swept broken glass from the complex, which includes a Rolls-Royce office, hair salons, an upscale gym, a popular cabaret and many offices.
In his last Twitter message Friday morning, less than an hour before he was killed, he criticized Hezbollah, saying it sought the same “powers in security & foreign policy matters that Syria exercised in Lebanon for 15 yrs,” referring to Syria’s occupation of Lebanon after its civil war.
Security has been heightened in recent weeks downtown, with soldiers standing guard at important intersections in armored vehicles. Jihadist groups fighting alongside the Syrian rebels, including Lebanese militants, have threatened to increase attacks in Lebanon over Hezbollah’s intervention on the side of the Syrian government, and at the same time, there have been fears of retaliation against Saudi or Sunni targets after bombings that targeted Hezbollah and the embassy of Iran, another ally of the Syrian government, in recent months.
The March 14 movement issued a statement implicitly blaming the bombing on Mr. Assad’s government: “The murderer is the same one, killing the Syrians and the Lebanese.”
Mr. Chatah, a prominent economist, was a seasoned diplomat who had served as a senior adviser to Fouad Siniora, a former prime minister, and his successor, Saad Hariri. He was also a former finance minister and was ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2000. He had also worked at the International Monetary Fund, and had been a spokesman for the Lebanese government. Born in Tripoli, he was married with two children.
Saad Hariri called the bombing a message to the international tribunal that is to hold its opening sessions on his father’s killing at The Hague in January.
Mr. Ward, the restaurant manager, said the bombing would deepen the country’s economic crisis, gutting holiday business. “People will be afraid to come to this area,” he said.
“Those who assassinated Mohamad Chatah are the ones who assassinated Rafik Hariri,” he said, adding that they were “luring regional fires to our country.”
He blamed greedy, warring politicians who want to show people that “if you don’t go along with us, see what happens.”
Analysts said that if the Syrian government was responsible, it could have used other proxies besides Hezbollah, which has an interest in maintaining calm, despite pressure from some supporters to respond to bombings in Hezbollah-dominated suburbs.
“As long as there is conflict around Lebanon, there will be others,” he said. “This is not the Lebanese community that I want.”
Friday’s bombing, which occurred as Mr. Chatah rode in a car to a meeting, struck an area that symbolizes the continuing struggle over Lebanon’s identity. The downtown was largely destroyed during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. Rafik Hariri rebuilt it as a shopping and office district mainly patronized by the wealthy. The project was seen by his critics as a monument to corruption and nepotism, and by his supporters as a symbol of rebirth.
Samir Knio, who responded to the scene with a volunteer civil defense organization founded during the civil war, said the bombing aimed “to destroy Lebanon,” adding, “Nobody would do this unless they are anti-Lebanon, anti-civilian, anti-humanity.”
Minutes after Friday’s blast, cars were aflame along a plaza in front of the Starco building complex, part of which survived the war largely unscathed. Mr. Ward, the restaurant manager, said the bombing would deepen the country’s economic woes and gut holiday business. He blamed greedy, warring politicians who want to show people, “If you don’t go along with us, see what happens.”
The bombing struck an area that symbolizes the ongoing struggle over Lebanon’s identity. The downtown was largely destroyed during the civil war as it became a no man’s land between Christian East Beirut and Muslim West Beirut. The area, once a commercial center for Lebanese of all social classes, was rebuilt as a shopping and office district patronized mainly by the wealthy. The effort was led by Rafik Hariri, and was seen by his critics as corrupt and nepotistic, and by his supporters as a symbol of Lebanon’s rebirth.
“As long as there is conflict around Lebanon, there will be other bombs,” he said. “This is not the Lebanese community that I want.”
At the Hi Tec Fitness gym overlooking the bomb site, a Christmas poinsettia and a basket of red glass Christmas balls stood untouched among the shattered glass. Yvan Richy, the manager, said he had seen “a sudden flash of light” and then the windows had caved in.
Reporting
was contributed by Hwaida Saad, Mohammad Ghannam and Bryan Denton from Beirut, and Dan Bilefsky from Paris.
“I don’t know what to think,” he said. “When terror wants to strike, you never know.”
Anne Barnard reported from Beirut, and Dan Bilefsky from Paris. Hwaida Saad and Mohammad Ghannam contributed reporting from Beirut.
