U.S. pulls envoy from Syria after Beirut bombing

Damascus - The Bush administration last night withdrew its ambassador from Syria and expressed "profound outrage" at the assassination of the former prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri.

Amid rising tension over the death of the construction magnate on Monday, the state department announced that it had recalled Margaret Scobey.

AP said Ms Scobey had delivered a stern note to Damascus before withdrawing.

Syria has denounced Hariri's murder, but opposition politicians in Lebanon yesterday said they suspected Syrian involvement and called for international intervention.

The rise in tension came as Lebanon's interior minister, Suleiman Franjieh, said that Monday's explosion was almost certainly caused by a suicide bomber driving a car packed with 300kg (660lb) of explosive.

Opposition leaders also demanded that Syria withdraw all its 14,000 troops and called for the government's resignation.

Marrouf Daouk, a senior adviser to Hariri, told the Guardian: "We don't want a war, we have had enough war. But the international people, they have to talk about this, and not just for a couple of days."

President Emile Lahoud made no further public statements after condemning the attack on Monday. But Mr Franjieh pledged that the election, due in May, would go ahead.

Hariri's opposition party, which has spoken out against Syrian influence in Lebanon, was expected to draw support away from those who back Mr Lahoud's pro-Syrian stance.

The death toll from the blast yesterday climbed to 14, with about 120 wounded. The former economics minister Bassel Fleihan, who holds dual Lebanese and British citizenship, was critically hurt and flown to France for emergency treatment.

Publicly only a previously unknown group calling itself Victory and Jihad has taken responsibility for the blast.

But that claim has been dismissed by the government, which warned that it could be an attempt to "mislead the investigation", as well by as the opposition and most Lebanese citizens, who are instead directing their anger against Syria.

In Sidon, Hariri's home city just south of Beirut, protesters attacked Syrian workers, burned tyres and blocked roads.

The former Lebanese general Michel Aoun, exiled in France, blamed Syria.

"There are many Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services working in Beirut and they control everything in the country," Mr Aoun told Reuters. "I don't think that if they were taking care of Hariri he would be attacked so easily. So their responsibility is clear, if not directly, perhaps indirectly."

Answering reporters' questions for the first time yesterday, Hariri's son Saadeddine also appeared to blame Syria, saying: "It's obvious, isn't it?"

The UN security council was preparing a declaration yesterday calling on the government to bring Hariri's assassins to justice.

Hariri will be buried today in a city centre mosque whose construction was financed by his corporation.

His family has rejected the government's offer of a state funeral, choosing instead a public procession that will begin outside his home and wind slowly through the streets to the mosque for prayers.

Workers outside the mosque yesterday set up large tents to accommodate the thousands of mourners expected.

Western embassies, including the British embassy, have warned their citizens to stay away from central Beirut.

The city's normal daily routine ground to a halt yesterday for the first of three days of official mourning - car horns were silenced, construction halted, shops and restaurants shuttered tight.

Continuous prayers of mourning were broadcast from the city's mosques, while many local television stations switched to readings of the Qur'an. Small groups of soldiers patrolled central streets, setting up checkpoints near key government buildings and monitoring demonstrators.

As protesters wound through the streets, their cars covered in posters of Hariri, many flocked to the site of the bombing to see for themselves the devastated front of the St George's hotel. They watched as the cleanup continued and the first of hundreds of blown-out windows were replaced.

"It's tragic, unbelievable. It's like we've gone 20 years back in time," said Haifa Abdul Qatar, a 21-year-old university student watching the cleanup.

At stake now is who will replace Hariri in the opposition. His eldest son, Bahaa, has been named as one candidate, while others look to Walid Jumblatt, leader of the country's Druze.

"This [Lebanese] regime is backed by the Syrians. This is the regime of terrorists and terrorism that was able yesterday to wipe out Rafik Hariri," Mr Jumblatt said after meeting the Hariris. -- Guardian News

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