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huge car bomb kills billionaire and former prime minister in Beirut

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ARYC:
"Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has been killed in an apparent large-scale bomb attack on his motorcade in Beirut. One of Hariri's senior bodyguards and officials at the American University in Beirut hospital confirmed Hariri's death to CNN. Witnesses reported seeing at least 10 bodies on the scene of Monday's explosion, which caused widespread destruction. Lebanon's official news agency said nine people were killed in addition to Hariri and 100 wounded, The Associated Press reported. At least six fires were burning in the immediate aftermath of the blast, which took place at shortly after 1p.m. The powerful blast took place in front of the five-star hotels St. George and Phoenicia-Intercontinental in the Lebanese capital's famed Cornische overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The city's fashionable seafront was strewn with rubble and burning vehicles, and the streets were littered with glass and twisted metal. "I haven't seen anything on this scale in Beirut since the dark days of the civil war," said CNN's Brent Sadler from the scene. Bystanders and emergency officials rushed to aid the injured, including one man who climbed from a car window on fire. A bystander used his jacket to put out the man's flames, AP said. "It's a scene of great carnage," Robert Fisk, correspondent for London's Independent newspaper, told CNN. "I saw several bodies on fire inside cars. I climbed inside the crater that was at least 15 feet deep, so this was a huge bomb. At least 22 cars were on fire -- one of them was blown three floors up into the annex of an unopened hotel. "Another seems to have been blown over the wall of the St. George Hotel, which was still under repairs from the civil war that ended in 1990. "Across the street, water was gushing from broken lines, and when the fire brigade arrived they had to drag their hoses past the corpses to put out the huge fires. "When we got there the fuel tanks of the cars were still exploding and spraying fire across the road so it was difficult to see how many had died and who they were." A plume of black smoke rose over the downtown. The explosion occurred near the city's waterfront and shook buildings in the city center. Windows were smashed out of buildings in the city's financial center about a mile away, Sadler said. The explosion was heard as far away as the eastern hills overlooking the city, AP said. The blast blew off the facade of at least one large building, covering cars, sidewalks and the street with rubble. Heavily armed security forces cordoned off the area with yellow tape as rescue workers and investigators combed the scene apparently looking for casualties or clues to what caused the huge explosion, AP said."


the car bomb's crater was huge , like 7 meters wide and 3 meters deep . I was in class when it went off and the windows shook (and i live 20 km away) not to mention the fact that it tore apart the heavily armored cars and threw a car into the 3rd floor of a hotel. I don't think it's an event "that could send Lebanon spiraling back into the bloody civil war" but it does change a lot of things , mainly because the assassination came like 48 hours after the UN told Syria they would be responsible if Hariri or Jumblatt (one of the main members of his party was aalmost killed in a similar car bomb a couple of months ago) were to be killed because they joined the mostly christian anti-syrian partys.



heres' a link to some of the pictures of the bomb (u can see Hariri in his car after the explosion although burned):

http://www.lebaneseforces.com/temp/explosion05/

Matrix Heart:
Who did he piss off?

Update
In a video that aired on Arab-language television network Al-Jazeera, a turbaned, bearded man read a statement claiming responsibility for a group called Victory and Jihad, saying the bombing was a "just punishment" for Hariri's close ties to the Saudi government.

 :o damn

Don Rizzle:
there is speculation seria is behind the bombing although i have my doubts

*Jamal*:

--- Quote from: Don Rizzle on February 14, 2005, 12:37:12 PM ---there is speculation seria is behind the bombing although i have my doubts

--- End quote ---

Who is Seria?

Don Rizzle:
syria fool

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