Lebanese leaders today called for calm after the country’s first political assassination in months threatened efforts to reconcile its divided factions.
The killing of Druse Sheik Saleh Aridi, a senior member of the Lebanese Democratic Party, came less than a week before planned reconciliation talks among rival Lebanese factions.
It was the first such assassination since an Arab-brokered agreement was reached after sectarian fighting in May.
That agreement led to the election of a new president and the formation of a national unity Cabinet.
Mr Aridi died last night in his village of Baissour in the Druse-populated hills east of Beirut, after a bomb planted under his car was detonated by remote control as he drove away from his home, police said. Six other people were injured.
AP
