BEIRUT, Lebanon — A remote-controlled car bomb ripped through a busy street overlooking Beirut on Wednesday, killing a top general and his bodyguard and heightening the sense of instability in a country that has gone without a president for nearly three weeks.
The assassination of Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj was the first to target an army commander since Lebanon’s crisis began last year and marked yet another line transgressed in a confrontation that has already paralyzed the cabinet, parliament and presidency. To many, the army stands as the last viable national institution, and the attack sent a chill through a country growing ever more discouraged with an enduring crisis between an American-backed government and an opposition led by HezÂbollah, which draws support from Syria and Iran.
“The army is our last hope. If they can strike a blow at the army, then we are a people without hope,” said Nazih Rafael, as he swept up glass shattered from his storefront near the attack in the Beirut suburb of Baabda. “If they can hit the army, that’s the last thing. That means they can knock on any door of any house in the country.”
Asked about the culprit, Rafael shrugged his shoulders, a gesture conveying the anonymity of those behind the assassinations that have become part of the country’s political calculus. Government supporters blamed Syria, as they have in other bombings that targeted eight prominent opponents of Syria the past two years. Syria denied any role, suggesting Israel or its allies had a hand in the attack.
Government opponents, led by the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, denounced the attack, calling Hajj’s death “a great national loss.” One of their Christian allies, Gen. Michel Aoun, said Hajj was his candidate to assume leadership of the army if parliament elects its present commander, Gen. Michel Suleiman, as president. While government opponents and supporters have agreed in principle on Suleiman succeeding former president Emile Lahoud, who stepped down Nov. 23, negotiations have stalled over a comprehensive deal to resolve the crisis, the country’s worst since the 1975-90 civil war.
The eventual settlement will be keenly read in Lebanon and abroad as a victory for one side or the other, with implications for the influence here of either the United States or Iran and Syria, the role of Hezbollah, the relative power of the country’s Sunni or Shiite communities, and the posture toward Israel.
In contrast to past assassinations, Hajj, 55, had no public political profile, a reflection in part of the army’s largely successful attempt to stay neutral in the conflict. But the political orientation of the army remains a point of contention in the ongoing political confrontation, and historically, its upper echelons have been viewed as friendly, even cooperative, with Hezbollah, particularly in the 1990s.
The bomb, estimated at 75 pounds and hidden in a BMW, detonated after 7 a.m. as Hajj, his driver and his bodyguard headed from his home. The blast shattered windows hundreds of yards away and sprayed charred pieces of vehicles across the street. Bystanders stared at broken glass in the street. Streaks of black scarred the white balconies overlooking the blast site. Sounds like chimes filled the air, as shop owners and residents swept away the detritus.
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