Lebanon on brink as blast rocks Beirut

A BOMBING in a Christian suburb of east Beirut overshadowed Easter celebrations yesterday and raised fresh fears of a slide back into Lebanon’s violent past.

Lebanese security forces picked through rubble and twisted metal left by Saturday's blast, the third in eight days in the Christian heartland, where resentment against Syria runs high.

Patriarch Nasrallah Butrous Sfeir, spiritual leader of Lebanon's Maronite Christians and a long-time critic of Syria's grip on Lebanon, told worshippers at Easter Mass that the Lebanese must now choose between freedom and violence.

"The holiday this year does not give the faithful worldly cheer," he said. "The incidents ... put (people) at a crossroads: either independence, sovereignty and freedom and that is what most Lebanese want or turmoil and difficulties."

Lebanon's pro-Syrian president Emile Lahoud urged unity. "We must be united. This is what will save the nation," he told LBC Television, after meeting Mr Sfeir.

The blast wounded eight people, security sources said, most of them migrant workers from South Asia.

They said 25kg of high explosives had been planted between a Buick car and a car repair shop and exploded in the Sad al-Boushrieh industrial zone. The US condemned the blasts and urged Lebanon to push ahead with elections due in May but threatened with delay if a crisis over the formation of a new government continues.

"The people of Lebanon are confident in their ability to proceed in a manner that tells those responsible they will not be frightened," US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield said after meeting opposition leader Walid Jumblatt.

Anti-Syrian opposition figures blamed the Lebanese security agencies backed by Damascus for the blast, which revived memories of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. They said the attacks would not deter their campaign against Syria.

Lebanon's opposition, which blames Syria and its allies for the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri on February 14, urged the country's security chiefs to resign to make way for an international probe into his death.

A UN fact-finding report said Lebanon's own inquiry was seriously flawed and called for an international investigation.

Lebanon's pro-Syrian authorities have criticised the report, but accepted an international probe.

The killing of Mr Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, has cast Lebanon into its biggest political crisis since the end of the civil war. The opposition seized on mass street protests to force the pro-Syrian government to resign last month and Damascus to bow to international pressure to withdraw its forces after 30 years.