Syria 'targeting Lebanese leaders for assassination'

Syria has not fully withdrawn its intelligence forces from neighbouring Lebanon and is interfering with elections there, perhaps even organising political assassinations, the Bush administration is saying.

US officials stopped short, however, of accusing the Syrians of carrying out either of two recent political killings.

“There are reports that we have been hearing about for some time about Syrian hit lists, targeting key Lebanese public figures of various political and religious persuasion, for assassination,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday.

A Syrian official denied the allegations of intelligence agents in Lebanon as “non-objective and untrue.”

“All Syrian troops, of all their different divisions, have withdrawn from Lebanon, and this was verified by the United Nations,” Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah told Syria’s official SANA news agency. “Lebanon is an independent and sovereign state, and it alone specifies its relations with other countries.”

The Bush administration offered no specifics, but said Syria has continued a pattern of intimidation born of nearly two decades of de facto political and military control in Lebanon. The salvo appeared aimed at asserting international disapproval of Syrian influence as Lebanese elections continue this weekend.

“We do see a pattern of the use of threat and violence to create an atmosphere of intimidation inside Lebanon,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. “And we believe that that pattern of threat and intimidation is designed to try to influence the Lebanese people, as they continue their voting.”

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations accused Washington of a smear campaign and repeated his country’s contention that all its forces left Lebanon weeks ago, in compliance with a UN demand.

Lebanese are voting in phased parliamentary elections this month that the anti-Syrian opposition hopes will end Damascus’ control of the legislature. Politicians opposed to Syrian influence won big in the first phase in Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, but Syrian-allied Hezbollah won in the second round in southern Lebanon. The process runs for another two Sundays.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending inspectors back to Lebanon to check reports that Syrian intelligence officials may still be operating in the country, a UN official said Friday.

A UN team monitoring Syria’s compliance on May 23 said all locations formerly used by Syria’s military intelligence apparatus were empty and concluded that “no Syrian military intelligence personnel remain in Lebanon in known locations or in military uniform.”