Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Lebanon's industry minister has been assasinated (Updated)

From all indications Lebanon is on the precipice of all out chaos. With Syria/Iran/Hizbollah and the elected government all vying for control a major eruption appears imminent.

Minister of Industry Pierre Gemayel was killed in a terrorist attack in Jdeideh in Beirut minutes ago. He was reportedly gunned down.

The attack took place as Saad Hariri was declaring in a press conference that March 14 was ready for a “peaceful confrontation” with Hizbullah and the pro-Syrians parties, who want to stage a coup in the country and put Syria back in control through street protests.

Saad interrupted the press conference upon receiving the news. He then returned to announce that Gemayel was killed.

Update: The coffins of prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel, bottom right, and his bodyguard, left, are carried by relatives and friends in between hundreds of thousands of anti-Syrian protesters, at the Martyrs square, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday Nov. 23, 2006. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese gathered to bid farewell to an assassinated young Christian politician Thursday, and his anti-Syrian allies turned his funeral into a powerful show of force against their opponents, led by the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah and its Syrian backers. (Photo above AP/Hussein Malla)

No comments: