for his opposition to Syria’s involvement in Lebanon, its prime minister said. Lebanon Prime Mininister Najib Mikati told reporters that the journalist was identified as Samir Kassir, 45, who wrote for the Lebanese daily newspaper An Nahar, a publication often critical of Syria.
An unidentified woman was wounded in the blast, news reports said. Reuters news agency quoted security sources as saying that Kassir died instantly when a bomb placed under the driver’s seat of his white Alfa Romeo car blew up as he switched on the ignition outside his home in the Christian Ashrafiyeh neighborhood.
BODY TORN APART
His body was torn apart and several cars were damaged and windows in nearby building were shattered by the explosion, eyewitnesses said. "He got into his car. It exploded when he turned the key," florist Adel Hassan told Reuters.
"I was walking into the building when the explosion happened, the glass shattered everywhere and I ran inside to check on my family," Samir Salim said. "I’m still terrified. It has not sunk in yet."
Kassir (also known as Qaseer) was a front page columnist for Lebanon’s leading daily who has for years called for an end to Syria’s role in Lebanon. Syria ended its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April under international and Lebanese popular pressure.
CHRISTIAN FEARS
The attack Was expected to raise fears among Lebanon’s Christian community, after similar
deadly bomb explosions in recent months in Christian areas. It also overshadows the parliamentary elections which began May 29 and run through June 19.
"Every time Lebanon takes a step forward, there are those who want to undermine this country," Mikati said. Calling the murder painful, he ordered security agencies to take measures to uncover the circumstances of the bombing.
"We will not allow anyone to target security and freedom," Mikati added. In his last column that appeared in An-Nahar’s front page on Friday, Kassir reportedly lambasted Syria’s lack of desire to enact rapid change, saying "reform for the (ruling) baathists does not mean accepting opposing views."
REGIONAL CHANGES
"The huge regional changes from Iraq to Lebanon only drive them to warn of US dangers without thinking for a minute of the best ways to prevent this danger," he added. Before the journalist, other Lebanese people killed included Rafik Hariri, a businessman-turned-politician who led Lebanon’s pro-Syrian government before becoming an advocate of Syria’s withdrawal, was killed in a bombing in Beirut in February.
His death sparked massive protests and renewed international pressure on Damascus to withdraw the nearly 14,000 troops and intelligence officers it kept in Lebanon, a pullout that was completed in April.
The United States, France, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, who supported the withdrawal, have suggested that without a Syrian presence Lebanon may have more chances to flourish as a stable state. However critics have said there are fears that at least some Syrian security forces and groups cooperating remain in the country to threaten Lebanon’s fragile stability.
HOPES IN DOUBT?
It was unclear what impact the latest bomb attack would have on former members of the primarily Christian Southern Lebanese Army (SLA) to return home, BosNewsLife monitored. Many of them fled to Israel in 2000, when the SLA supporting Israeli army withdrew from southern Lebanon, despite the presence of Syrian forces in the country.
Syria and other Arab countries backed Lebanese Muslim factions, including Hezbollah, while Christians, including those of the SLA, received Israeli support during years of civil war which began in 1975.
"As soon as the Syrians leave, and I don’t think it will be more than two months, I will be going back," Joseph Hanoun, a bodyguard of late senior SLA commander Akel Hashem, told The Jerusalem Post newspaper recently. "I will go back regardless of [militant group] Hezbollah because without Syria and its security apparatus in Lebanon Hezbollah is weak," the paper quoted the 38-year old Hanoun as saying. (Witn BosNewsLIfe Research, BosNewsLife News Center and reports from Lebanon)
