The Wall Street Journal-20080116-Lebanese Bomb Targets Embassy Group
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Lebanese Bomb Targets Embassy Group
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A bomb blast ripped through a busy highway in what Lebanese officials said was an attack against an American Embassy convoy, representing a significant shift in violence here.
The attack, which took place on a main thoroughfare connecting the capital to the north, killed at least three Lebanese and injured scores of civilians -- including two Lebanese employees of the embassy. It was the first time employees of the American Embassy were direct targets of violence in Lebanon since the 1980s, and it came hours before a farewell party for the departing U.S. ambassador here, Jeffrey Feltman. The reception was canceled.
"I want to state the outrage of the United States against the terrorist attack that took place in Lebanon," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters at a news conference in Saudi Arabia, which was also attended by Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.
No group claimed responsibility, but the attack came amid President Bush's Middle East trip. Violence in Lebanon had so far been mostly confined to attacks on political and military leaders connected to a stalemate between the Western-leaning government and opposition lawmakers, including those backed by Syria and Hezbollah, which receives support from Iran.
A series of assassinations have rocked Beirut the last few years, but attackers had refrained from targeting foreigners. "This is obviously directed against Americans, and it's outside the context of Lebanese domestic politics," said Rami Khouri, a political analyst with the American University of Beirut.
At the scene of the blast, located in the Christian neighborhood of Karantina-Dora, the facades of several buildings had collapsed and the road was covered with shattered glass and debris. Ambulances swarmed in and out carrying the injured to nearby hospitals while Lebanese security forces sealed off the area. The smoldering remains of at least 30 vehicles littered the road, including a car that security sources say was booby-trapped and exploded as the American convoy passed by.
Matthew Clason, a 28-year-old American, said he was teaching at the nearby National Evangelical Church at the time of the blast. "Next thing I knew, the windows blew out," he said from a Beirut hospital, where he was taken for minor injuries. "I don't know what happened."
It is unclear whether yesterday's violence will have any impact on the political standoff here over the makeup of the next Lebanese government and its next president. Both sides recently agreed on a consensus candidate, Army Gen. Michel Suleiman, but lawmakers have so far failed to agree on constitutional changes required to fill the post.
Arab League chief Amr Moussa is due back in Beirut today to broker a deal between the two sides in hopes of filling the presidency post, which has been vacant since the end of November. Some analysts here hope that yesterday's attack will create a new urgency for both sides to compromise before the country slips any further into violence.
