Day Of Mourning In Lebanese Capital

Tens of thousands bade farewell on Thursday to victims of a powerful car bombing that killed a prominent anti-Syrian legislator and nine other people as the government — reeling from another blow targeting its supporters — sought international help.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers and the international community to assist in the investigation of Walid Eido's assassination near a popular waterfront promenade in the Lebanese capital.

The bomb ripped through Eido's car Wednesday as he drove from a seaside sports club, also killing his 35-year-old son, two bodyguards and six passers-by.

Thursday's funeral procession swelled to tens of thousands escorting Eido's body, that of his son and a bodyguard behind ambulances covered with Lebanese flags that drove from the American University Hospital in West Beirut to a mosque at the Shohada Cemetery several kilometers (miles) away for a prayer service and internment.

The procession passed through the main thoroughfare of Corniche Mazraa in the Muslim sector, where pictures of the slain politicians were posted on walls and overpasses.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian majority bloc in parliament to which Eido belonged to, Druse politician Walid Jumblatt and other prominent anti-Syrian leaders marched behind the ambulances.

On the streets, mourners waved Lebanese flags, those of Hariri's Future movement and banners of various Sunni factions. The crowds shouted the Islamic cry "There is no God but Allah" and slogans in support of their leaders.

Some applauded or blew whistles as the coffins drove through the packed street of Tarik Jadideh, a Sunni neighborhood loyal to Hariri that was the scene of fierce Sunni-Shiite street clashes in February.

At the mosque, male relatives sobbed and bent to kiss the coffins laid next to one another. The spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslim, Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheik Mohammed Rashid Kabbani led the prayers, with Saad Hariri, son of a slain former prime minister, at his side.

Hariri said Lebanon will not kneel before the killers and promised they will be brought to justice.

"We fear only God Almighty. We will stay the course with righteousness, justice and calm. But no one should think that this people will kneel and be frightened," he said. "I tell the criminals, 'you will be punished and you will be dragged to prisons and will face justice,' God willing."

The blast that killed Eido was a new blow to the stability of this conflict-torn nation.

It came just three days after the government, together with the United Nations, started putting together an international tribunal ordered by the U.N. Security Council to try suspects in the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut two years ago — a move strongly opposed by Syria and its allies in Lebanon.
Eido was a prominent supporter of the tribunal, a staunch follower of Hariri and the seventh anti-Syrian figure killed in Lebanon in the past two years. Many in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind the slayings, a claim Damascus denies. Lebanon's majority coalition blamed Syria for Wednesday's assassination.

Syria controlled Lebanon for 29 years until it was forced out after Hariri's assassination, and its Lebanese opponents believe it is seeking to regain domination by plunging the country into chaos.

Businesses, schools and government offices were closed Thursday after the government declared a day of national mourning.

It was not clear when the funerals of the others would be held as some of the bodies have not been identified yet. Authorities on Thursday identified a lawyer among the dead after running DNA tests.

Hariri has urged his Sunni supporters to keep calm during the funeral, to avoid any eruption of violence.

At the site of the explosion by Beirut's seafront, a dozen Lebanese security agents searched for evidence near four charred cars. Across the street, about 50 angry young men on motorcycles chanted pro-Hariri slogans.

The slaying was likely to further enflame Lebanon's bitter power struggle between Saniora's Western-backed government and its Syrian-backed opponents, led by the Hezbollah militant group.

Many fear the violence could push the polarized nation, with a fragile balance of ethnic and religious groups, into a new civil war. Eleven people have been killed in government-opposition clashes that took a sectarian Sunni-Shiite tone.

The United States — a major ally of Premier Saniora — also condemned the bombing.

"We stand with the people of Lebanon and Prime Minister Saniora's government as they battle extremists who are trying to derail Lebanon's march to peace, prosperity and a lasting democracy," Gordon Johndroe, the U.S. National Security Council spokesman, said in Washington.

Wednesday's blast also came as Lebanon is dealing with a separate conflict that threatens to spiral out of control: a nearly four-week battle with al Qaeda-inspired militants barricaded inside a Palestinian refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli. More than 140 people have been killed in the Lebanese army's siege of the Nahr el-Bared camp.

The Lebanese military and police had already imposed heavy security measures around Beirut in reaction to a series of bomb blasts that have hit the capital since the Nahr el-Bared fighting began. Those explosions killed two people, yet another layer of instability rattling the country.