Hezbollah blamed for Beirut blast

Former Lebanese minister Mohamad Chatah, who opposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, was killed in a massive bomb blast yesterday which one of his political allies blamed on the Shi’ite Hezbollah militia.

The attack in Beirut killed five other people and threw Lebanon, which has been drawn into neighbouring Syria’s conflict, into further turmoil after a series of sectarian bombings aimed at Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims over the past year.

Former prime minister Saad al-Hariri accused Hezbollah of involvement in the killing of Chatah, his 62-year-old political adviser, saying it was “a new message of terrorism”.