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Car Bomb Kills Senior Lebanese Politician
The London Times
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(AP)
Lebanese investigators examine the wreckage after a car bomb killed Sheik Saleh Aridi
Times online
A senior Druse politician has been killed in a car bomb attack near Beirut less than a week before reconciliation talks were to take place among rival Lebanese factions.
Sheikh Saleh Aridi, a member of the Lebanese Democratic Party, who recently helped reconcile rival factions within the Druse community, died when a bomb tore through his car in the mountain village of Baissour , police said.
The blast, which killed six other people, was the first political assassination in a year in Lebanon . Prime Minister Fuad Saniora contacted Druse leaders and joined them in calling for calm.
The bomb, which was placed under the chassis below the driver's seat, exploded as Mr Aridi got into his Mercedes sedan in front of his house in the Druse-populated hills near the resort town of
Aley . Officials believe it was triggered either by remote control or by a motion sensor.
The assassination was unexpected: previous bomb attacks, starting with the assassination of
Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005, have targeted politicians opposed to Syria 's influence in Lebanon . The attacks have been blamed on Syria , although that country has denied any involvement. Mr
Aridi and his party, however, were allied with Syrian-backed Hezbollah.
The bombing came amid efforts to cement reconciliation among rival factions in the Druse party
and Mr Aridi's colleagues claim the attack was planned to rekindle violence between the factions.
"It was a bloody message," Nazih Abu Ibrahim, a colleague of Mr Aridi said on Hezbollah's al-Manar television.
The area where Mr Aridi was attacked is controlled by two Druse factions, the pro-Syrian Lebanese Democratic Party led by Talal Arsalan and the anti-Syrian Progressive Socialist Party of Walid Jumblatt.
Lebanon's political standoff between pro- and anti-Syrian factions boiled over into fighting in Beirut and the Druse hills east of the capital in May. During those clashes, Shiite fighters of the
Syrian-backed Hezbollah fought an anti-Syrian Druse faction in the region where the bomb went off. An Arab-brokered agreement defused the tension, leading to the election of a new president
and the formation of a national unity Cabinet that includes the two major blocs.
Since the May fighting, Mr Arsalan and Mr Jumblatt have worked toward unity of the minority
Druse sect and to prevent infighting. Mr Aridi was a key liaison between the two sides and helped mediate an end to the fighting between Hezbollah and Mr Jumblatt's men in the region around his home town.
Mr Jumblatt went to the village after the explosion to express solidarity and attempt to defuse tensions. He said whoever was behind the bombing did not like the conciliatory air among
political factions nationwide in recent weeks.
The Druse are a secretive offshoot Islamic sect with communities in Lebanon , Syria and Israel .
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