BEIRUT: Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah said a car bomb that killed six people including an influential member of the country’s anti-Damascus coalition yesterday was aimed at destroying “national unity.”
Hezbollah did not react to March 14’s implicit accusation that the group, along with ally Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, was behind the attack. “Hezbollah believes this despicable crime is one of a series of... attacks aimed at destroying the country,” it said.
“It’s a disgusting attempt at undermining stability and national unity, which only the enemies of Lebanon will benefit from,” Hezbollah added. The powerful movement did not comment on a statement by March 14, which had implied Syria’s regime and Hezbollah were behind the car bomb that killed Mohammad Chatah.
March 14 has previously blamed Assad’s regime and Hezbollah for a string of high-profile assassinations of anti-Damascus figures, starting with former prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005.
Five Hezbollah members are to be tried in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Netherlands, with the first hearing set for January 16.
Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the car bomb blast in Beirut that killed six people, including former finance minister Mohammad Chatah. Saudi Arabia “has followed with great concern and disturbance the outrageous terrorist bombing” that rocked the Lebanese capital, said a statement on the official SPA news agency.
AFP
