Anti-Assad Lebanese ex-minister killed in Beirut bomb blast

BEIRUT: Former Lebanese Minister Mohamad Chatah, who opposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and four other people were killed in a massive bomb blast that targeted his car in Beirut on Friday, security sources said.
Chatah, 62, a Sunni Muslim, was also a critic of Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah movement and an adviser to former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.
His killing occurred three weeks before the long-delayed opening of a trial of five Hezbollah suspects indicted for the Feb. 2005 bombing which killed former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, Saad’s father, and 21 other people.
Hezbollah has denied involvement in the 2005 attack. Preliminary U.N. investigations implicated Syrian officials.
A tweet posted on his Twitter account less than an hour before the blast accused the Shi’ite movement of trying to take control of the country.
“Hezbollah is pressing hard to be granted similar powers in security and foreign policy matters that Syria exercised in Lebanon for 15 years,” the tweet read.
The explosion sent shock waves among residents and emptied the streets in downtown where people, seeking a respite from recent turmoil, had ventured out to enjoy the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
The conflict in neighbouring Syria has polarised Lebanon and ratcheted up sectarian tensions.
Hezbollah has sent fighters to Syria to fight alongside Assad, who comes from the Alawite sect, a heterodox offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
Some of the Sunni Syrian rebel groups are linked to al Qaeda, which is also seeking to topple Assad.
Former minister Marwan Hamadeh, who survived a car bombing in 2004, told Al Arabiya television: “Hezbollah will not be able to rule Lebanon, no matter how much destruction it causes or blood it spills”. (Reuters)