BEIRUT – A powerful car bomb in Beirut killed a senior official linked to the anti-Damascus camp in Lebanon Friday, officials said, further raising tensions over the war in the neighboring country. The rush-hour bombing in a busy square of the predominantly Christian district of Ashrafieh killed at least eight other people and wounded 96, Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil told reporters at the scene. A government official said the intelligence chief of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, General Wissam Al-Hassan, was among the dead. Hassan was close to Saad Hariri, who is leader of the Lebanese opposition and hostile to the regime in Syria. He had been tipped to take over as ISF head at the end of this year. The ISF played a central role in the arrest in August of former Lebanese information minister Michel Samaha, who has close links to Damascus and was charged with planning attacks in Lebanon and transporting explosives. The agency was also deeply involved in seeking the arrest of those responsible for a host of attacks and assassinations between 2005 and 2008, starting with the murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri. Friday's blast occurred only 200 meters from the headquarters of the Christian party, the Phalange, which is also anti-Damascus. No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Phalange MP Nadim Gemayel quickly accused Syria of orchestrating it. “The Syrian regime is not foreign to such explosions. This is a political blast par excellence,” Gemayel told LBC television. – Agencies
