Hariri's assassination: Lebanon blames likely suicide attacker

Lebanon said Tuesday a suicide bomber was probably behind the massive attack that killed former prime minister Rafiq Hariri as a mob of angry mourners turned on a group of Syrian workers to avenge his death. The army was on high alert as the country was plunged into grief and despair over Hariri's St Valentine's Day assassination, an attack that triggered fears across the globe of a return to the dark days of civil war.
"The assassination is the work of Syria," mourners shouted as they charged on Syrian workers in Hariri's hometown of Sidon in southern Lebanon, which was draped in black and plastered with placards vowing revenge.
The opposition put the blame squarely on the Syrian regime, whose dominant role in Lebanon's affairs was opposed by Hariri, a billionaire and five-time prime minister who spearheaded the country's post-war reconstruction.
Hariri, 60, was killed along with 14 other people when a huge explosion ripped through his motorcade on the Beirut seafront on Monday, leaving a trail of burnt and bloodied bodies, blazing cars and rubble strewn in scenes that brought back painful memories of the 1975-1990 war.
"The security services are almost sure that it was a suicide car bomb," Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh said, adding however that the investigation was still going on and rejecting calls for an international probe.
Soldiers patrolled the streets after Lebanon's army ordered a mass mobilisation to "safeguard stability" and raised its state of alert to the maximum.
A hitherto unknown Islamist group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge Hariri's close ties with the Saudi regime, but experts suggested it required highly sophisticated technology and know-how that only a well organised group or government might possess.
Officials told to stay away from funeral
Former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, assassinated in a massive bombing, will be buried Wednesday in a ceremony at which government officials have been told to stay away, close friends said.
"The family has categorically and definitively refused" that the funeral be organised by the state, one friend said.