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Sunday, December 29, 2013

Lebanon buries ex-minister Chatah killed in Beirut blast

The funeral of the Lebanese former minister and opposition figure
Mohamad Chatah, who was killed by a car bomb on Friday, is taking
place in Beirut.

Tight security was in place as his body was conveyed to a city centre mosque.

Mr Chatah, a Sunni Muslim, was a staunch critic of Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad and Lebanon's Shia Hezbollah movement that backs him.

Lebanon has been hit by a wave of attacks linked to heightened
Sunni-Shia tensions over the Syrian war.

No-one has claimed responsibility for Friday's bombing, which killed
six other people and injured at least 50.

Correspondents say Mr Chatah, who served as an adviser to former Prime
Minister Saad Hariri, was seen as a moderate in the polarised country.

Mr Chatah will be buried by a mosque on the edge of Martyr's Square
near Mr Hariri's father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, himself
killed in a massive car bomb in 2005.

Mr Chatah's allies, who include Christians and Muslims, called for a
big funeral turnout as a political statement, the BBC's Kim Ghattas in
Beirut reports.

Saad Hariri implicitly accused Hezbollah of carrying out the bombing.
He blamed "those who are hiding from international justice and who
have spread the regional fire to the [Lebanese] nation".

Hezbollah rejected the accusation, calling the bombing a "heinous
crime, which comes in the context of a series of crimes and explosions
aimed at sabotaging the country".

Syria also denied any involvement in the attack.
Mr Chatah was on his way to a meeting of the anti-Syrian March 14
bloc, led by Saad Hariri, when his convoy was hit.

The bomb went off at 09:00 (07:00 GMT) between the Starco Centre and
Phoenicia Hotel, not far from the Lebanese parliament building.

The blast damaged several buildings and set several cars ablaze.
A 16-year-old who died in the attack will also be buried in Beirut on Sunday.

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