Sidon early Thursday, November 21, amid growing anti-American sentiment in the region, the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) said.
The C&MA, an evangelical denomination with emphasis on world evangelization and missions, said its worker Bonnie Weatherall 31, was killed by "alone gunman" who followed her "into the clinic at around 8 a.m. local time," and "shot her in the head three times."
In a statement released by the C&MA internet website, her 36-year old British husband Gary Weatherall praised his wife’s courage. "My wife died because of her love for the church and because she loved helping the people of Sidon and Lebanon," he said.
Bonnie Weatherall had worked with a C&MA missionary in the Sidon C&MA prenatal clinic for over a year. U.S. Embassy workers reportedly visited the scene, where a Lebanese helper discovered Weatherall’s body shortly after the shooting, the C&MA said.
WARNINGS
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in Sidon, about 45 kilometres (approx. 28 miles) south of Beirut. But C&MA staff members running the pregnancy clinic had reportedly received warnings from anti-American Islamic extremists demanding it close down.
"About three to four months ago the frequency of the warnings increased and the language toughened. They came from Lebanese Sunni Muslim extremists asking them to stop their activities and leave," an unidentified colleague told the Reuters news agency.
In a statement the C&MA added that although the "clinic is well received by the community the religious majority in Sidon opposes the evangelical church’s presence."
Anti-American and anti-Christian sentiments have reportedly increased in the region, ahead of an anticipated U.S-led war against Iraq. In October, a senior US diplomat was shot dead in Jordan amid President Bush’s perceived bias towards Israel and policy against Iraq.
HELPING
Despite the apparent dangers, Weatherall arrived in Lebanon about three years ago and is said to have worked long hours at the clinic twice a week, mainly helping pregnant Lebanese and Palestinian women from the nearby Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp.
Since it opened three years ago the clinic reached apparently many women of this city of an estimated 250,000 residents. The C&MA said the clinic provided needed medical care twice a week to more than 50 pregnant women and new mothers and that numbers recently increased as news of the medical aid spread.
"Bonnie was a lovely woman. She loved the people and served them. She had a beautiful heart,” said Lebanon C&MA Church President, Rev. Sami Dagher, in a statement seen by BosNewsLife.
"She helped pregnant women. She went with some of them to their deliveries to support them and she talked to them and helped them," the Reuters news agency quoted her Swedish friend, Asa Bjork as saying.
CONDOLENCES
Rev. Dagher spent three hours at the police station in Sidon early Thursday, November 21, and "the governor of Sidon and the general of the gendarmes came to the clinic to express their condolences and commitment to finding the killer," the C&MA said.
The killing of the missionary worker was the first murder of a Westerner in Lebanon since 1983, when a suicide truck bomb attack on a U.S. barracks in Beirut killed 241 people. There was no immediate word about funeral arrangements.
"This (killing) comes as a great shock to the Alliance national church and staff working in Lebanon," the C&MA said. The organization added it had relocated its personnel in Sidon "until the situation is better understood."
