MIDDLE EAST:A powerful car bomb killed a top police investigator and at least three other people during rush-hour in eastern Beirut yesterday.
The blast at 10am, audible in central Beirut, propelled bodies on to a flyover and engulfed a car park and dozens of vehicles in flames, leaving charred limbs strewn on the ground.
Capt Wisam Eid (31) headed the technical department of a police intelligence unit close to Sunni parliamentary majority leader Saad Al-Hariri and established after the latter's father Rafik, five times the premier, was assassinated in 2005.
Capt Eid's unit works with a UN-led investigation into Mr Hariri's killing and a chain of subsequent attacks. Many of the 30 or so bombings targeted anti-Syrian politicians and journalists and the ruling coalition has unfailingly pointed the finger at its eastern neighbour, as some members did yesterday. Damascus denies involvement and condemned Capt Eid's killing.
The White House led a chorus of condemnation, calling the bombing an act of terrorism aimed at destroying Lebanon's institutions but displaying a rare reluctance to blaming Syria immediately.
Police Brig-Gen Ashraf Rifi said at the scene that Capt Eid had been privy to all the intelligence files on "terrorist bombings". But that could also suggest a link between his killing and an investigation into an al-Qaeda-inspired militant group, Fatah Al-Islam, which fought the army last summer in the northern Nahr El-Bared refugee camp.
Capt Eid was hurt in a police raid on an alleged bank robbers' hideout linked to Fatah Al-Islam, which sparked that conflict.
Army chief of operations François Hajj, victim of the last assassination in December, co-ordinated the Nahr El-Bared battle. The deadly explosions have punctuated a year-long political deadlock between the western-supported government and opponents led by Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hizbullah.
Lebanon's presidential palace has stood empty since Émile Lahoud stepped down on November 23rd.
Both sides have agreed to elect army chief Gen Michel Suleiman, but a tug-of-war persists over cabinet seats.