LEBANON: Lebanon's Syrian-backed president Emile Lahoud pledged yesterday to do his utmost to end a spate of bomb attacks that are being seen as an attempt to revive the sectarian conflicts that plunged the country into 15 years of civil war.
The latest bomb, the third to strike a predominantly Christian neighbourhood in eight days, hit a Beirut suburb on Saturday night, causing a huge blaze in the Sad al-Boushrieh industrial area of Beirut.
Though a close ally of Syria, Mr Lahoud belongs to the Maronite Christian sect.
He had earlier attended an Easter Mass where the Maronite patriarch, a longstanding critic of Syria, told worshippers that Lebanon was at a crossroads leading to "either independence, sovereignty and freedom - and that is what most Lebanese want - or turmoil and difficulties". - (Guardian Service)