ISF Official among Five Killed in Beirut Blast

Source: Agencies, 25-1-2008
At least five people have been killed and scores others were injured in a powerful blast that struck Friday in a Beirut neighborhood. "The blast hit the Furn al-Shebbak neighborhood," a security official said. Initial reports said that the bomb attack targeted a Lebanese Security vehicle. A security source said that Captain Wissan Eid was among the people killed in the blast. Captain Eid is a senior officer in the Information Branch, part of the Internal Security Forces. Other unconfirmed reports said that a senior judge was among the victims, without identifying him. A senior Lebanese security official said Eid was involved in many investigations concerning bombings in Lebanon. Earlier, officials had said that 11 people had died.
Flames engulfed cars, trapping several people as firefighters battled to extinguish the fires and security forces cordoned off the Thick black smoke curled into the sky as ambulances rushed to the scene, an area of office buildings and parking lots on a highway leading out of Beirut.
Eid was reportedly returning from a meeting with the International Investigation Committee that is looking into the string of assassinations that have mostly targeted prominent anti-Syrian politicians and intellectuals in Lebanon over the past several years.
Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa denied the report, however, saying he was instead in route from his home to his office.
Eid was a top detective and forensic engineer in the ISF, primarily working on the investigations of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's and subsequent assassinations.
Eid had survived a previous failed assassination attempt last February 11, 2006, when he was greeted at his front door by a grenade. His hands were seriously injured but he survived.
The Information Branch of the ISF was created in 2005 under then-acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat. Opposition figures have accused the branch of having been created to serve the interests of Future Movement leader Saad Hariri and his allies.
Over the past two years the branch has been greatly expanded in order to combat a growing tide of radical groups such as Fatah al-Islam, and the string of assassinations that has now touched them as well.
The bombing is the latest in a string of assassinations and assassination attempts by unknown parties. This bombing comes ten days after the last attack, which targeted a US Embassy vehicle, killing three civilians and wounding two Lebanese employees of the embassy.
It is the first attack to target the ISF, and the first since Lebanese Army Brigadier General François al-Hajj's assassination on December 12 to target security institutions. Al-Hajj had been tapped as the next head of the army, to replace Brigadier General Michel Sleiman once he was elected president.
Meanwhile, Syria condemned the bomb attack and blamed "Lebanon's enemies" for it, the official news agency SANA said. It cited a Syrian official as "condemning the attack perpetrated this morning in Beirut and affirming that it aimed at Lebanon's security and stability."