Nickdfresh
02-14-2005, 07:56 AM
Huge blast kills ex-Lebanese PM
Monday, February 14, 2005 Posted: 7:49 AM EST (1249 GMT)
Emergency workers carry a wounded man from the scene.
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has been killed in an apparent large-scale bomb attack on his motorcade in Beirut, a bodyguard and officials at the American University of Beirut hospital told CNN.
Witnesses reported seeing at least 10 bodies on the scene. The blast caused widespread destruction.
Hariri, 60, a multi-billionaire businessman who resigned from government last October, recently joined calls by the opposition for Syria to quit Lebanon in the run-up to general elections in May, Reuters reported.
Hariri served as prime minister from 1992-98 and again from 2000 until his resignation after parliament amended the Lebanese constitution to extend Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud's term by three years. Lahoud had been set to leave office last November.
At least six fires were burning in the immediate aftermath of the blast, which took place at shortly after 1 p.m. (6 a.m. ET).
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."
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.
Monday's explosion occurred before a backdrop of increasing political tension ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for May.
Lebanon's pro-Syrian government, which counts on its neighbor for security, has come under fire from the anti-Syrian opposition, which says Lebanon can take care of its own security.
Syria maintains about 16,000 troops in Lebanon, based mainly east of Beirut and in the Bekaa Valley, according to the CIA. The Arab League approved that troop deployment under the Ta'if Accord at the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
After Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, the opposition began to demand that Syria withdraw as well. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution last October calling on Syria to withdraw.
The 15-year civil war mostly pitted Lebanon's ruling conservative Christians against leftist Muslims, with Syria, Israel and Western international forces -- including U.S. Marines -- occasionally taking part.
www.cnn.com
Monday, February 14, 2005 Posted: 7:49 AM EST (1249 GMT)
Emergency workers carry a wounded man from the scene.
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has been killed in an apparent large-scale bomb attack on his motorcade in Beirut, a bodyguard and officials at the American University of Beirut hospital told CNN.
Witnesses reported seeing at least 10 bodies on the scene. The blast caused widespread destruction.
Hariri, 60, a multi-billionaire businessman who resigned from government last October, recently joined calls by the opposition for Syria to quit Lebanon in the run-up to general elections in May, Reuters reported.
Hariri served as prime minister from 1992-98 and again from 2000 until his resignation after parliament amended the Lebanese constitution to extend Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud's term by three years. Lahoud had been set to leave office last November.
At least six fires were burning in the immediate aftermath of the blast, which took place at shortly after 1 p.m. (6 a.m. ET).
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."
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.
Monday's explosion occurred before a backdrop of increasing political tension ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for May.
Lebanon's pro-Syrian government, which counts on its neighbor for security, has come under fire from the anti-Syrian opposition, which says Lebanon can take care of its own security.
Syria maintains about 16,000 troops in Lebanon, based mainly east of Beirut and in the Bekaa Valley, according to the CIA. The Arab League approved that troop deployment under the Ta'if Accord at the end of the 1975-90 civil war.
After Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, the opposition began to demand that Syria withdraw as well. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution last October calling on Syria to withdraw.
The 15-year civil war mostly pitted Lebanon's ruling conservative Christians against leftist Muslims, with Syria, Israel and Western international forces -- including U.S. Marines -- occasionally taking part.
www.cnn.com