Explosion in Lebanon kills 4

 

A car bomb attack killed one of Lebanon”s top military generals and at least three others Wednesday, the military and state media said, putting even more pressure on the country”s delicate political situation.
 
Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj, head of military operations in the army command, was killed in the explosion along with several other soldiers. Hajj had been mentioned as a candidate to succeed army commander Michel Suleiman if he is elected president.

 

The blast was the first attack of its kind against the Lebanese army, which is seen as the one force that can hold the country together as increasingly acrimonious relations between parliament”s rival factions over the past several months have paralyzed the government.

 

“This morning, the criminal hand targeted head of army operations Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj with a bomb as he drove in his car opposite Baabda municipality, which led to his death along with a number of soldiers, and wounded others,” the army command said in a statement.

 

“The army sealed off the area and has started investigating,” it added.

 

The explosion came as Lebanon is embroiled in its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-90 civil war and amid heightened tensions between pro-government and opposition groups.

 

The country has been without a president since Nov. 23 when Emile Lahoud left office and a deadlocked parliament failed to elect a successor.

 

The explosion occurred at 7:10 a.m. (12:10 a.m. EST) as school buses and people were setting off for work Wednesday.

 

Security officials said Hajj, who lives in the area, had left his home few minutes earlier, probably heading to the nearby Defense Ministry, when the blast detonated near his car, killing him and his bodyguard immediately. The officials said later that his driver was among those killed.

 

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with military rules, said the blast came from a car bomb.

 

The blast wrecked cars and caused heavy damage in the area, which also houses foreign embassies. Two bodies were thrown about 15 yards by the force of the explosion. Troops sealed off the area as firefighters tried to put out the flames in at least two cars. The road was blacked with the soot as black smoke covered the area.

 

It was the first time the military has been targeted in a bombing in recent months. The military has managed to keep the peace amid the serious political crisis in recent months.

 

The army also crushed Islamic militants in three months of summer fighting in a northern Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared that left hundreds dead. Hajj headed the grounded operations at the camp, which ended in September with the army defeating the Fatah Islam militants.

 

Lebanon has been rocked by a series of explosion since a massive truck bombing killed former Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005 in central Beirut. The last major explosion on Sept. 19 killed anti-Syrian lawmaker Antoine Ghanem on a Beirut street.

Picture: Lebanese soldiers secure the site of an explosion in Christian town Baabda east of Beirut December 12, 2007. A senior army officer was among those killed in an explosion in east of Beirut on Wednesday, security sources said.

 

REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON)