US embassy denounces Lebanon bomb attack
BEIRUT (AFP) — The US embassy in Beirut on Friday condemned the car bombing that killed a senior Lebanese intelligence officer and said that the attack was yet another attempt to destabalize the country.
"This crime is yet another direct and hideous attack against Lebanon's state institutions," the embassy said in a statement. "This attack is the latest in a series over the last three years targeting those who are working to protect the Lebanese and secure Lebanon's independence and sovereignty.
"The United States, like Lebanon's other international friends, remains firmly committed to supporting Lebanon's legitimate institutions, its democracy and independence."
Friday's attack killed Captain Wissam Eid, his bodyguard and two others. It also wounded 36 people, according to a security official.
It came 10 days after a similar attack targeted a vehicle from the US embassy. No one in the US car was killed but three other people who were driving in the area died.
That bombing was the first such attack against US interests in Lebanon since the mid-1980s and came during a visit to the Middle East by US President George W. Bush.
Lebanon is grappling with its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.
The country has been without a president since pro-Syrian head of state Emile Lahoud stepped down on November 23 with no elected successor amid a standoff between the Western-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition.
It has also been the scene of numerous bomb attacks in the past three years, targeting mainly anti-Syrian personalities and drawing accusations of Syrian involvement. Damascus has vehemently denied any role.
Lebanese officials say a car bomb blast in a Christian suburb of the capital Beirut has killed at least six people, including a top security official. The bombing has been criticised by the US Embassy in Lebanon.

Red Cross ambulances evacuated at least a dozen casualties, after a powerful explosion tore through rows of parked cars, near a major highway overpass, targeting a top Lebanese police investigator.

Firefighters worked feverishly to douse the blazing wreckage of twisted automobiles, as thick plumes of acrid black smoke choked the air.

Lebanese security officials say top police investigator Wissam Eid, the apparent target of the blast, died immediately.

Eid had reportedly just finished meeting with members of the UN Tribunal investigating the explosion death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al Hariri in February 2005.

The head of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, the country's national police force, Ashraf Rifi says that the perpetrator's of the explosion intended today's explosion to be a message to his forces. He says that Eid was a technological expert and engineer, and that he was involved in investigating all recent terrorist bombings.

Rifi also stressed that the explosion was the result of a car-bomb, repeating that it was intended as a "message to Lebanon's police and investigating community."

Charles Ayoub, the Editor of Lebanon's Ad Diyar newspaper told al Arabiya television that at least 30 to 40 kilos of a TNT were used in the bombing.

Lebanese investigators, using sniffer dogs, combed through the rubble of the explosion, looking for clues, but sources say that water used to douse the blaze was making the search extremely difficult.

Over 30 major explosions have hit Lebanon since 2005, killing at least ten top politicians, civil servants, army officers, and journalists. Most of the victims were, in some way, opponents of Syria.

Several members of parliament from the anti-Syrian March 14 government coalition quickly accused Syria of today's killing. Syria has denied any role in any of the deaths.