Lebanon mourns ex-minister killed in bombing

Coffin of former Lebanese finance minister Mohammad Chatah Lebanese mourners gathered in Beirut on Sunday to bury Mohamed Chatah, a prominent critic of the Syrian regime, killed in a car bombing that revived painful memories of political assassinations. Chatah, 62, a Sunni Muslim former finance minister and close aide to ex-prime minister Saad Hariri, was killed on Friday along with six other people.
Dozens of others were wounded in the blast in the heart of Beirut, raising fears about the fragile situation in Lebanon, which has seen the war in neighbouring Syria regularly spill over.
Heavy security was in place on Sunday, as the body of Chatah and his bodyguard Tarek Badr were transported from western Beirut to a mosque downtown for prayers and burial.
"There is no God but God, the martyr is the beloved of God," mourners chanted as the bodies arrived.
Chatah will be interred at the mausoleum of Hariri's father Rafiq, who was also killed in a huge suicide bombing on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.
His supporters blamed Hariri's death on the Syrian regime and its ally, the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.
Army vehicles were stationed around the area of Sunday's funeral at the Mohamed al-Amin mosque, and cars were forbidden from parking nearby.
Hundreds of mourners gathered, including distraught members of Chatah's family and political dignitaries.
His coffin was brought into the mosque draped in a green and cream-striped material with religious verses on it, alongside that of his bodyguard Badr.
Inside the mosque, the coffins were laid side by side, and relatives of the two men stood by them, crying.
One of Chatah's sons gripped a relative of Badr's, embracing him as they both wept.
Outside the mosque, mourners in black watched the proceedings on a large screen, one waving a Lebanese flag.
Behind them stood a lit Christmas tree and a newly-erected billboard declaring Chatah a "martyr for moderation".
'We will build the country he dreamed of'
Burnt vehicles at the scene of a huge car bomb explosion that rocked central Beirut on December 27, 2013 killing five people, including Mohamed Chatah, former finance minister and adviser to Lebanese ex-premier Saad Hariri
President Michel Sleiman has declared Sunday a national day of mourning, and hundreds of Lebanese were paying their respects.
"We're participating in the funeral to reject the logic of assassinations and to reaffirm the way of moderation and the way of Rafiq al-Hariri," said 40-year-old Youssef Fati, a teacher standing outside the mosque.
"Whoever assassinated him, we will continue to build the country that Rafiq Hariri and Mohammad Chatah dreamed of," he added.
Chatah was seen as an influential figure in the March 14 coalition, which is opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its Lebanese ally, the Shiite movement Hezbollah.
His assassination stirred painful memories of a string of bombings that hit Lebanon between 2005 and 2012, targeting prominent figures that were critical of the Syrian regime.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack that killed Chatah, but March 14 implied Damascus and Hezbollah were behind it without naming them.
"The criminal is the same, he who is thirsty for the blood of Syrians... he and his Lebanese allies."
Syria denied the "wrong and arbitrary accusations," while Hezbollah said the bombing was aimed at destroying "national unity".
Chatah is the ninth high-profile Syrian regime critic killed in Lebanon since Hariri's assassination, and his death raised new fears of instability in Lebanon.
The war in neighbouring Syria has exacerbated existing tensions in ever-fragile Lebanon.
Hezbollah backs Syria's Assad, and has dispatched fighters to help him battle against opposition forces.
But many Lebanese Sunnis support the Sunni-dominated Syrian uprising, and some have travelled across the porous border to fight with the opposition.
In recent months, bomb attacks have targeted Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Beirut, as well as the Sunni town of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, killing dozens of people.
On November 19, a twin suicide bomb attack on the Beirut embassy of Iran, the main ally of both Hezbollah and Syria, killed 25 people. It was claimed by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Abdullah Azzam Brigades.
Lebanon is also hosting more than 850,000 registered Syrian refugees, which has created economic and social tensions in the country.
Source: AFP