Security chief dies in Beirut blast - Friday 19 October 2012
This article is more than 11 years old
Lebanon: 'eight dead, 78 wounded' in explosion UN-Arab League envoy travels to Syria to call for truce Dozens killed in air raids on Maarat al-Numan Read the latest summary
We're going to wrap up today's live blog coverage of events in the Middle East. For developments outside Lebanon, see our most recent summary here.
In Lebanon:
Violent protests broke out in Beirut and across the country following the assassination of Internal Security Forces chief Wissam al-Hassan in a car bombing that killed seven others and wounded dozens. One person was reported killed in clashes in north Lebanon.
Many Lebanese politicians, including former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of being behind the assassination. Damascus issued a statement condemning the bombing, as did Hezbollah.
The anti-Syrian March 14 party called for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati's government. Hezbollah, the Shiite party that has reportedly lent fighters to Assad, is a key member of the governing coalition.
The Financial Times' MENA correspondent picks up reports that Lebanon's March 14 party, the powerful anti-Syrian block, has called for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati's government.
Lebanon: Hariri party chief just called for resignation of Mikati govt, which "acts to protects criminals"
Ali Hashem of Al-Mayadeen TV station in Beirut reports that one person has been killed in clashes in north Lebanon following the assassination today of Wissam al-Hassan:
In today's State Department briefing, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland condemned the Beirut bombing and said all US personnel in Lebanon are accounted for:
Well, first of all we condemn in the strongest terms this apparent act of terrorism that took place today in Beirut’s Achrafieh neighborhood. There is no justification for such violence. The Government of Lebanon is obviously going to have to conduct an investigation, and you are right, Matt, that we do not yet have details either on who the perpetrators were. We do know that our Embassy personnel are all accounted for. We also don’t have any reports at this stage of American citizens having been victims. We obviously express our heartfelt sympathies for the families and the loved ones of those who were killed and injured, and we stand by the people of Lebanon and renew our commitment to a stable, sovereign, and independent Lebanon.
Wissam al-Hassan "actually introduced amazing reforms to Lebanese security services who were slowly beginning to solve cases," writes Timur Goksel, a former spokesman the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon, in a brief commemoration. "For a while he rounded up many [alleged] Israeli spies [in Lebanon], for which Hizbullah was grateful."
General Wissam al-Hassan attending a ceremony in Beirut in 2008. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Saad Hariri, the son of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister who was assassinated by bomb in Beirut in February 2005, has accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of orchestrating the killing today of Wissam al-Hassan.
Saad Harir on Al Arabiya now accusing Assad of killing Wissam al-Hassan. He was speaking on the phone from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Hariri sits at a unique intersection in the tangled crossroads of Lebanese political life. His father won his fortune in Saudi Arabia, and Saad Hariri, himself a former prime minister, remains a key facilitator of Saudi interests in Lebanon and the region. Those interests now include arming the Syrian opposition.
Hassan is reported to have played a role in the Saudi effort to arm the Syrian rebels. His decision to arrest Assad ally Michel Samaha this past August placed him at odds with the Syrian regime.
But Hassan also has old ties with the Syrian regime. After Rafik Hariri's assassination, Hassan emerged as a major suspect because of his proximity to the powerful Syrian head of intelligence, Rustom Ghazzali. Syria's involvement in the Hariri assassination has been widely assumed through years of inconclusive investigation. Hassan also became a suspect at the time because he was Rafik Hariri's bodyguard but was not with him the morning he died, saying he had an exam.
A 2010 CBC news report used phone records to link Hassan to another group suspected of involvement in Rafik Hariri's killing: Hezbollah. The Shiite group currently has fighters inside Syria defending the regime against rebels armed in part by Saudi Arabia. Hassan has also been seen as having forcefully opposed Hezbollah.
Today's Middle East news has been dominated by a bomb attack in the Lebanese capital which is reported to have killed eight people, including security chief Wissam al-Hassan.
The political consequences remain to be seen but there are fears that the bombing could seriously increase tensions in Lebanon.
Wissam al-Hassan had been heavily involved in investigating former information minister Michel Samaha – a supporter of the Assad regime in neighbouring Syria – who has been accused of plotting terror attacks in Lebanon.
There has been a report of an explosion in the Jordanian capital, Amman – though it may simply be a collapsed ceiling. We're awaiting further details.
The story began when the Associated Press quoted Jordanian police as saying there had been a "large explosion" in a shopping mall. Other sources on Twitter insist there was no explosion.
For those who want to know more about Wissam al-Hassam, the assassinated security chief, Elias Muhanna is posting information and links on his Qifa Nabki blog.
Wissam al-Hassan was one of the most important security figures in Lebanon. He headed up the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces (i.e. the Lebanese police), and was recently responsible for arresting Michel Samaha, a former minister with close ties to Syria, for allegedly conspiring to have explosives blown up all around Lebanon in a bid to create havoc.
The move was seen as hugely destabilising in Lebanon — because Wissam al-Hassan is very close to the March 14th coalition while Samaha had long been regarded as “untouchable” because of his connections to Damascus — and yet none of Samaha’s Lebanese allies demanded his release.
Wissam al-Hassan also has a very interesting role in the investigation of the Hariri assassination, which we’ll discuss later as well.
'Top security official killed' in Beirut blast – TV station
A Lebanese TV station is reporting that a top Lebanese security official, Wissam al-Hassan, was killed in the Beirut explosion.
Hassan, head of the Lebanese internal security service, has been heavily involved in investigating former information minister Michel Samaha, an Assad supporter, who has been accused of plotting terror attacks in Lebanon.
We now have some pictures which give a fairly good view of the site of the explosion in Beirut.
Forensic experts inspect the site of the explosion in Beirut's Ashrafieh neighbourhood. Photograph: Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images
Lebanese forensic experts examine the site . Photograph: Wael Hamzeh/EPA Photograph: WAEL HAMZEH/EPA
A senior commander in the Free Syrian Army says rebels will not sign a truce with the Assad regime and will ignore any attempt to do so.
“Brahimi's proposal for a truce is still born,” staff colonel Ahmad Fahd al-Nimah, commander of the military council in Deraa, told the Guardian.
He said was suspicious of the international envoy’s proposal and has refused to meet him.
Speaking to our colleague Mona Mahmood, Nimah said:
We do not trust this regime and this truce. Brahimi's proposal is designed to divert attention from the truth of the massacres happening here.
It is unacceptable to slaughter people anytime and not just in Eid.
It is an illusion designed to try to give Bashar another six month to transfer power to another government. It is being proposed to prolong the existence of the regime and justify all the massacres Assad has committed against humanity.
The whole world has been silent towards what the regime is doing here and now they want us to accept a truce?
As a commander of a military council in Derra, Brahimi wanted to meet me, but I declined. I believe he is playing for time until the US elections. Maybe when the elections are over the world can make decision against the regime.
For now Brahimi is just wasting time. His project does not have any hope.
Even if [exiled Free Syrian Army leader] Riad al-Asaad accepts the truce, we will not. We will continue to fight.
Riad represents himself but we represent the joint military command. We represent those fighting on the ground in Syria. No one outside Syria can tell us what to do.
It is completely impossible and impractical to implement a truce on the ground.
The regime is in a state of failure and needs time to rearrange its ranks. Just yesterday they were calling us terror gangsters and now they are asking for truce with us. We do not trust this regime, or this truce.
Reporting on the explosion in Beirut, the Syrian government news agency includes a statement of condemnation from the information minister:
Meanwhile, information minister Omran al-Zoubi condemned the coward terrorist act, adding in a statement on Friday that "such terrorist acts are condemned and unjustifiable wherever they happen".
Beirut-based journalist Mitchell Pothero fears the death toll from today’s blast is likely to rise after witnessing the remains of many victims at the scene.
Speaking to the Guardian from Beirut he said the attack was unlikely to have been targeted against the Syrian government or its associates.
There were multiple body parts on the ground when I arrived. We are hearing that eight are dead - which I think might end up a bit conservative - and as many as 72 wounded.
The area would have been very crowded. There’s going to be a lot of people in hospital tonight in Lebanon.
When the bomb exploded it shook the neighbourhood - I was about 800m to 1km away. But broken glass starts around four to five blocks from the epicentre.
There are at least 12 cars that have been destroyed by fire or explosions, including what looked like the car which had the bomb planted in it - it had been flipped over and landed on the hood of an Audi. It had been completely destroyed. There was broken glass throughout all of it. Almost like fallen snow.
Sassine is an upper middle class enclave of Christian Beirut that is known for its opposition to the Syrian government making it an unlikely target for the Syrian rebels, Prothero said.
There was nothing specific around it that would indicate a specific or financial target. A few prominent banks have offices in the area. About 150m away is an opposition political party known as March 14th. About 100m away also is a Christian headquarters known as Lebanese forces.
From the location of the blast it is difficult to know who is being targeted. My best guess is that someone tried to blow up a car with someone in it. Either a vehicle passing by another vehicle or the bomb was in the vehicle itself.
The damage to nearby buildings was substantial, but did not suggest the blast occurred inside one of them.
There is a very prominent Syrian bank that was located right next to [the scene]. Several banks have offices there so its a possibility that a bank official was targeted.
I would think it was unlikely to be a political act of violence against the Syrians based on its location, because this is probably the most devoutly anti-Syrian neighbourhood in all of Lebanon. So for somebody to set a car bomb off in an attempt to kill a Syrian official [would have known] they were going to put the lives of many people at risk. That seems unlikely to me, but it is Lebanon so anything is possible.
The Lebanese information minister has described the explosion in Beirut as "a terrorist act".
Al-Jazeera reports that security forces are clearing people from the area to preserve the "crime scene" for investigators. (This differs from the explosion that killed former prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, when moves were made to clean up the site during the first few hours.)
A Beirut resident, interviewed on al-Jazeera, says today's blast occurred in "a low-income residential street".
The Lebanese government news agency now says eight people were killed and 78 wounded in the Beirut explosion.
Lebanese MP and member of the March 14 alliance Michel Pharaon, asked by al-Jazeera English about the likely target, declined to specify any particular building and said the district of Ashrafiyeh was the target.
Others have been more outspoken in blaming the Syrian regime.
Now Lebanon reports that Kataeb bloc MP Nadim Gemayel told LBC television: “The Syrian regime is not [detached] from such kind of explosions, which is political par excellence ... the Syrian regime is collapsing and is trying to move its crisis to Lebanon.”
Future bloc MP Nohad Mashnouq told Al-Arabiya TV: “The explosion is a message sent from the Syrian regime to terrorise the Lebanese people.”
The Lebanese Daily Star, citing security sources, says at least four people died today and 30 others were wounded in the explosion in the Ashrafiyeh district of Beirut.
Now Lebanon puts the toll higher, saying at least eight died and 50 were wounded.
As far as possible political targets are concerned, MTV station said the blast took place between the headquarters of the March 14 (anti-Assad) coalition and the Kataeb (Christian Maronite) party. Ashrafiyeh is a largely Christian district.
On the other hand, El-Nashra website said the explosion ripped through a building housing a branch of BEMO – a Syrian bank.
Beirut-based journalist Antoun Issa writes on his blog that the explosion was caused by two car bombs. He has spoke to several witnesses:
A 46-year-old witness said he heard a loud explosion while working in his third-storey office, next to where the bomb went off. The man said he felt the pressure of the blast, and the windows shattered immediately ...
An elderly lady in the residential complex said she was watching television ...
“I heard a loud boom and then everything came falling down, the windows, the timber. This is my second explosion, God finish me from them,” she said hysterically.
The inside of one apartment I visited was in total ruins, every window shattered and debris scattered throughout.
The scene of the blast in Beirut is reported to be Sassine Square in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh area.
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At least two people were killed and 15 wounded in a roadside bomb that exploded in central Beirut on Friday, a security source said.
A Reuters witness saw at least one body at the scene and the security source confirmed two dead. It was not immediately clear if the explosion targeted any political figure in Lebanon's divided community.
Some reports are saying the explosion in Beirut was at or near Banque Bemo Saudi Fransi, which has its headquarters in Syria. However, there is no evidence at this stage that the bank was the target, and there are other possible targets in the area.
Banque Bemo Saudi Fransi launched its operations on January 4th 2004 to become the first operational private bank in Syria in almost 40 years.
Our Bank is a Syrian Private joint stock company licensed by the Syrian prime minister's decision number 18 dated April 30, 2003, the bank is registered in the Commercial Register of Damascus under the number 13901 and in the list of banks under the Number8.
Banque Bemo Saudi Fransi is a fully fledged bank in Syria. Its main shareholders are the Lebanese Banque Bemo S.A.L and the Saudi Banque Saudi Fransi.
Abd al-Razzaq Haddad, commander of al-Sadiq Brigade of rebel fighters in the strategic battleground of Maarat al-Numan, has no interest in a ceasefire for Eid al-Adha. He spoke via Skype earlier today with our colleague Mona Mahmood:
We do not agree with what Brahimi [the international envoy] is suggesting. We believe even if we accept the truce, the regime won't stop its repression of the Syrian people. It is impossible for a criminal brutal regime to stop its machinegun of killing against the people.
The regime will never comply with the truce that Brahimi has been talking about for five days now. In fact, the killing by the regime has increased more since Brahimi started to talk about the truce.
Come here to Maarat al-Numan and see. Every day we have 20 or 30 martyrs falling by the aerial and artillery shelling by the regime. What truce is Brahimi talking about? Let him come here and have a look.
Bashar [al-Assad] and his group are liars. They might say that they accept the truce but in reality they will never stop the killing and the shelling. If you remember, when [Kofi] Annan came here and repeated the same suggestion, but the regime did not comply. It is a lying regime.
We will never stop the fight for a single minute if it is Eid or not Eid. But if I get an order from Riyadh al-Assad, I will stop.
We have not discussed the subject of the truce at all within the command yet, as we do not care about it.
Assad has been killing us for 18 months. Nobody could stop him and I don’t think a ceasefire will stop him. It is just four days, after that he will continue killing us. Everybody knows that.
Fares said the Free Syrian Army leadership may observe the ceasefire, but he is suspicious.
It is a trap. Assad is leading a terrible situation now. His army and military forces is messy. So he needs time to reload his guns to reload his planes. Then he will continue killing us.
Today’s demonstration in Kafranbel only lasted for 30 minutes because of air raids. Protesters marched for 500m before returning home, Fares said. “We can’t make a steady demonstration because of the air strikes. Fighter jets and helicopters are all over the area.”
But he claimed rebels still controlled the town, despite daily air strikes by for the last two months. "Kafranbel is liberated, there are just the air strikes from the regime everyday. The rebels, we are controlling everything here in the city [town]," he said.
Fares predicted that fighting will continue for at least another two years.
Nobody is helping us, it will be a very long time ... We are not waiting for the American elections. Turkey is trying to help, but Turkey can’t help us.
Qatar seeks international ban on 'insulting' religions
Qatar's justice ministry is working with the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) to draft a law "banning the insult of any religion", which it hopes will eventually become enshrined in international law, the Doha-based Peninsula newspaper reports.
The IUMS is headed by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the prominent Islamic scholar who has connections with the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Peninsula's report continues:
The draft is to be discussed at the level of GCC justice ministers and later forwarded to the Arab justice ministers’ meeting in Cairo which is to be held in November, Qatar News Agency reported yesterday.
A workshop will be held where justice ministries from the Arab world will be present along with senior IUMS representatives and legal experts that would discuss the draft. The draft law will be discussed in the meeting of the ministers of justice of Arab countries scheduled to be held in Cairo in November for approval ...
Dr Qaradawi called for a draft law in major languages and forward it to international organisations and ... finally the draft law should be submitted to the United Nations officially for approval.
“This means we are imposing a foreign solution on the Syrians. The solution must be Syrian rather than imposed from outside and the Syrian people should decide through elections," he said.
Ahmadinejad held surprise talks on Syria with Turkey earlier this week.
Discussing the talks Ahmadinejad said:
Our main goal is to achieve security and stability in Syria. But the difference is on the means to achieve that goal. Some believe that progress can be achieved through wars, but we believe that the means to achieve the goal is through national dialogue. This is what we told Erdoğan and sought his help on.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
held surprise talks in Baku, Azerbaijan at the sidelines of a summit on Tuesday. Photograph: Ay Collection/SIPA/Rex Feature Photograph: AY-COLLECTION/SIPA / Rex Feature
A shoe is seen glued to a statue of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, at the museum of Maarat al-Numan, in the northwestern Idlib province, on October 17, 2012. Photograph: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
A correspondent for AFP has seen evidence of cluster bombs dropped on the strategic town of Maarat al-Numan, the agency reports.
The rebels showed an AFP correspondent in the battleground Idlib province town debris from one such cluster bomb and dozens of other bomblets that failed to explode on impact.
The devices bore markings in the Cyrillic script used in several Eastern European countries, including Russia – a key ally of the government of President Bashar Assad.
As we mentioned in the summary below, the New York Times also has a report about yesterday's airstrikes on Maarat al-Numan which refers to reporters on the scene for a western news agency.
Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy on Syria, has warned that the Syrian conflict will spread if a ceasefire can't be brokered.
Speaking in Jordan ahead of his trip to Damascus, Brahimi said: "This conflict if it continues, will not be limited to Syria's borders. It will effect the region and beyond the region."
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Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of Colonel Gaddafi's violent death, and the BBC has been looking at what happened to his surviving relatives and associates. To summarise:
Safiya Gaddafi (wife): Living in Algeria Muhammad Gaddafi (son): Living in Algeria Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (son): Detained in Zintan, Libya Saadi Gaddafi (son): Granted asylum in Niger Aisha Gaddafi (daughter): Living in Algeria Hanaa Gaddafi (adopted daughter): Possibly alive, whereabouts unknown Moussa Ibrahim (media spokesman): Whereabouts unknown Musa Kusa (former intelligence chief): Living in Qatar
Four toppled leaders: Muammar Gaddafi leans on Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak (R) and Yemen president Ali Abdullah Saleh (L) as they pose with Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali at a conference in Libya (undated). Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP
Senior rebels leaders claim they are ready to start a ceasefire during the Eid al-Adha holiday, as set out by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, but only if several conditions are met first.
The joint command for military and revolutionary councils, which is now said to be commanding Free Syrian Army forces on the ground, set out its terms in a video statement sent to al-Jazeera.
The map includes both verified and "weak" unverified reports on the down of 10 planes and six helicopters. It also shows attacks on airbases.
The highest concentration of reported attacks is in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.
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Two militants wearing army uniforms drove an explosives-laden car into the base, killing themselves and 10 soldiers and injuring 15 other soldiers, a military official said.
Moments later, the base came under attack from the sea and 11 more militants and three soldiers were killed in the fighting that followed.
Welcome to Middle East Live. The International envoy on Syria is expected to take his calls for ceasefire to Damascus today, as Bashar al-Assad's forces continue to bomb rebel strongholds.
Men stumbled over rubble, carrying single bones nearly shorn of flesh and shredded body parts barely identifiable as human. Amid a swirling crowd of rescuers, two young men embraced and wept.
According to conventional wisdom, pro-government forces should be well equipped by weapons from Russia and China and, to a lesser extent, Iran. But for some reason they have resorted to crafting weapons to complement, or perhaps even replace, their standard arms. We are not sure why, though theories abound ... The fact that both sides have developed ways to field makeshift arms is not a hopeful sign for those counselling a cease-fire, much less peace.
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