Lebanon in state of alert after bomb kills former PM

Lebanese people protest after the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri (pictured on posters). Picture / Reuters

BEIRUT - A huge car bomb has killed Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, shocking a nation used to calm after its 1975-90 civil war and jolting the army into declaring a state of alert.

At least 14 others, including several of Hariri's bodyguards, died when his motorcade was blown up as it passed through an exclusive section of Beirut's seafront, four months after he resigned as prime minister.

Western powers and Middle East leaders hailed the 60-year-old billionaire for masterminding Lebanon's reconstruction after its civil war and expressed concern his death may destabilise Lebanon before general elections in May.

Opposition leaders said Syria, which keeps 14,000 troops here and plays a powerbroker role resented by some Lebanese, bore responsibility for Hariri's death. But they stopped short of accusing Damascus of any outright involvement.

Former Economy Minister Basil Fuleihan was critically wounded in the blast, the biggest in Lebanon since the civil war ended. It gouged a deep crater in the road outside the St George hotel, ripped facades from luxury buildings and set cars ablaze.

At least 135 other people were hurt, officials said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he hoped the killing would not reignite the civil war. President Bush was "shocked and angered," the White House said.

"It is imperative that the already fragile situation in the region should not be further destabilised," Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

The United States said it would consult with UN Security Council members about taking punitive measures against those responsible for the death of a man it said "worked tirelessly to rebuild a free, independent and prosperous Lebanon."

The 15-member Security Council planned a formal meeting on Tuesday about the killing as well as its resolution demanding Syrian troops get out of Lebanon.

ARMY PATROLS BEIRUT

Lebanese voices calling for Damascus to pull out its troops have grown louder since the Security Council passed its resolution.

Hariri had remained politically influential since his resignation and recently joined opposition calls for Syria to quit Lebanon.

In Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called the blast a "horrendous criminal act" and told Lebanese President Emile Lahoud no effort should be spared to find the killers.

"Syria regards this as an act of terrorism, a crime that seeks to destabilise (Lebanon)," Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhl-Allah told Reuters by telephone.

Lebanon's army said it had gone on general alert, deployed patrols and set up checkpoints.

Patrols made up of three or four army vehicles drove through the largely empty streets of central Beirut, where shops were shut at the start of three days of official mourning for Hariri.

Soldiers armed with M-16 assault rifles were seen manning checkpoints at main streets in the capital.

Demonstrators accusing Syria of plotting the killing earlier threw stones at an office of the Lebanon branch of Syria's ruling party. They also set fire to tyres and a picture of Syria's Assad outside the Baath Party office in Beirut.

Lebanese opposition figures, including Druze chief Walid Jumblatt and Christian ex-President Amin Gemayel, said Syrian and Syrian-backed Lebanese authorities bore responsibility for Hariri's death and called on the government to resign.

They also appealed for a three-day protest strike.

DEEP CRATER

A senior security source said the explosion was caused by a car bomb.

"Everything around us collapsed," a Syrian building worker at the site said. "It was as if an earthquake hit the area."

A previously unknown Islamist group said in a video aired by Al Jazeera television it had carried out a suicide attack against Hariri because he supported the Saudi government.

Hours later Lebanese security forces said they had stormed the Beirut home of a man they identified as a Palestinian who read the claim of responsibility. A Lebanese security source said Ahmed Aboul Adef was not in the house.

At the scene of the blast, scores of firefighters doused the burning vehicles and bloodied survivors were taken away by ambulance. Hariri's body, with wounds and burns to the face, was taken to the American University Hospital where sympathisers gathered and wept.

Hariri's funeral was planned for Wednesday, and the government called for three days of national mourning.

Beirut was often rocked by car bombs during the civil war, when fighting among religious and political factions all but tore Lebanon apart. But they have been rare since then.

Hariri had held office for most of the past 12 years before quitting in October 2004 amid a bitter rift with Lahoud.

- REUTERS