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Killing investigated for links to other attacks in Lebanon

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Investigators are looking into whether a car bomb that killed one of Lebanon's top terrorism investigators was part of a string of attacks that have targeted leading anti-Syrian politicians, a security official said Saturday.

Police collected fingerprints and bits of shrapnel in search of clues at the site of the Friday bombing that killed Capt. Wissam Eid. Among other things, they hoped to learn who owned the car.

"Security and judicial police investigators are probing a possible link between Capt. Eid's killing and a series of assassinations that have rocked Lebanon in the last three years," the official told the Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.

Eid was one of the country's top terrorism investigators who was investigating assassinations of prominent anti-Syrian figures and other attacks in recent years, including the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Eid, 31, worked for the police intelligence agency that is closely tied to the Western-backed government, and had survived two previous assassination attempts. Friday's attack also killed his bodyguard and three passers-by and wounded 37 people, police said.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, whose Western-backed government is locked in a fierce power struggle with the Syrian-backed opposition, pledged Saturday to pursue "the criminals who planned and carried out this crime, which is aimed at destroying the state security institutions."

"The road to independence is fraught with dangers and filled with sacrifices," Saniora said.

President Bush condemned the bombing and urged Syria and Iran to stop interfering in Lebanon's politics.

"We will not falter in our support for the democratically elected Lebanese government," Bush said. "We demand that Syria, Iran, and their allies end their interference in and obstruction of Lebanon's political process."

The blast, which struck midmorning Friday in the Christian neighborhood of Hazmieh in eastern Beirut, came a day after a labor strike that was largely peaceful and 10 days after a car bomb aimed at a U.S. Embassy car killed three bystanders.

[Last modified January 27, 2008, 02:24:53]