Car Bomb Assassinates Captain Wassim Eid

Captain Eid was from the Intelligence wing of the Internal Security Forces investigating previous Assassinations 

Captain Eid had given the UN commission probing his 2005 assassination information about the crime.

A grenade was thrown at his home in Beirut, Two years ago.

Police Officer among Victims of Beirut Bombing

A car bomb exploded during the morning rush hour Friday in Beirut's Hazmiyeh-Chevrolet neighborhood, killing a top police officer who had been probing terrorist bombings.

Lebanese Red Cross officials said three other people were killed in the 10:00 am blast that went off not far from the building housing Alfa Telecommunications Company in the Chevrolet-Hazmieh district. They said as many as 20 people were wounded.

However, army and security officials told AFP that 10 people were killed in the blast, including Capt. Wissam Eid, a member of the Internal Security Forces (ISF).

The explosion took place in an area of office buildings and parking lots on a highway leading out of Beirut.

Eid had survived two previous assassination attempts, including a 2006 hand grenade targeting his house and a raid in the northern port city of Tripoli, Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa said.

Eid was "one of the most important officers in the intelligence department," Sabaa said. "They (attackers) are trying to hit the backbone of the Lebanese state, which is security."

"Eid was a key member of the ISF and was involved in many investigations concerning bombings in Lebanon, including a February 2007 bombing in a Christian area. He was involved in sensitive probes and this is a major loss for us," a senior security official said.

Captain Eid was in his 30s and had been working with the ISF for about eight years.

General Ashraf Rifi, head of the ISF, who went to inspect the blast scene, said the bombing was yet another attempt at destabilizing Lebanon as it grapples with its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

"This is a message to the Internal Security Forces following the message sent to the army in December when Gen. Francois el-Hajj was killed in a car bomb," Rifi told reporters. "This will not deter us from our mission to protect the country and ensure security."

The force of the blast ripped a crater in the asphalt two meters wide and a meter deep.

Rifi confirmed that the blast was a car bomb.

Rifi said Eid's bodyguard also was killed.

Thick black smoke curled into the sky as flames engulfed cars, trapping several people. Another dozen vehicles were wrecked in a nearby lot.

Firefighters battled to extinguish the fires as security forces cordoned off the area.

Local residents and office workers, some screaming and others suffering from shock, could be seen running amongst the blazing vehicles searching for friends and loved ones.

Police could be seen gathering body parts near the crater while within a 500 meter radius most of the windows of buildings and houses were blown out.

As news of the killing spread to Eid's hometown of Deir Ammar north of Tripoli, dozens of villagers burnt car tires and blocked the coastal highway linking Lebanon's second-largest city with the Syrian border.

On Jan. 15, a U.S. embassy vehicle was targeted in a car bombing which killed three passersby.

Lebanon 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.

In February 2005, five-time Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a huge bomb attack on the Beirut seafront. The international and domestic backlash against his killing resulted in Syria withdrawing its forces from its tiny neighbor after nearly 30 years.

According to a former member of a U.N. commission probing Hariri's murder, Eid was close to the ex-premier and had given the commission information about his murder.

Syria condemned Friday's bomb attack and blamed "Lebanon's enemies" for it, the official news agency SANA said.

It quoted a Syrian official as "reaffirming Syria's permanent attachment to Lebanon's security and stability."(Naharnet-AP-AFP)

Beirut, 25 Jan 08, 13:41

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&3ED9E5A1F65B3DB5C22573DB003FE831

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Explosion rocks Beirut,
5 dead
By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 37 minutes ago

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A car bomb exploded in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut on Friday killing at least five people, including a top police official who dealt with terrorist bombings and had previously been targeted, authorities said.

The blast in Hazmieh on the Lebanese capital's Christian eastern edge set dozens of vehicles ablaze and ripped a giant crater in the asphalt.

The national police chief, Brig. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, said one of those killed was Capt. Wissam Eid, a senior police intelligence official. Eid was an engineer who was handling "very important" files, including "all those having to do with the terrorist bombings" in Lebanon, Rifi said.

Lebanon has been hit by a series of explosions, some of them political assassinations, amid a deepening 14-month political crisis. Syria has been blamed in many of the bombings, but it has denied any role.

The police intelligence department is close to the Lebanese government's anti-Syrian majority, and has been frequently criticized by the pro-Syrian opposition.

Interior Minister Hassan Sabei said there were two previous tries to kill Eid.

Eid's bodyguard also was killed, Rifi said, in addition to three or four civilians. The Lebanese Red Cross said four people were killed and 20 wounded, the state-run National News Agency said.

Television footage from the scene showed a huge plume of black smoke rising from street and orange flames shooting up into the sky.

Several cars could be seen burning in a blackened area some 20 yards wide, near a highway overpass. Firefighters struggled to put out the flames. Dozens of cars were also wrecked in a nearby parking lot.

TV footage showed at least three bodies, one slumped behind the wheel of a delivery truck that was ripped apart, and two others on the ground under a highway tressel.

Friday's blast came a day after a labor strike that was largely peaceful, and 10 days after a car bomb aimed at a U.S. Embassy car killed three bystanders. In December, a car bombing killed a top general in the army.

It was the second attack against the police intelligence department in less than two years.

On Sept. 5, 2006, Lt. Col. Samir Shehade, deputy head of the intelligence department in Lebanon's national police force, was wounded when his convoy was targeted by an explosion in the town of Rmeileh, just north of the southern city of Sidon. The explosion killed four people in his convoy.

The biggest of Lebanon's recent bombings killed former Premier Rafik Hariri and 22 others in February 2005. His assassination triggered political upheaval and international pressure that forced Syria to withdraw its army from Lebanon.

Damascus has denied any role in the bombings, which killed a number of anti-Syrian politicians and journalists.

While attacks have continued, their targets have become more diverse in the past few months, with the killing of a top army general close to the opposition and the recent attack on the U.S. Embassy vehicle.

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Captain Wassim Eid - Internal Security Forces (ISF)

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January 25, 2008
Car Bomb Assassinates ISF Intelligence Officer Involved in the Investigations of Previous Assassinations.