President Michel Suleiman on Sunday stressed that the government “must not provide cover for perpetrators and criminals” and called for “speeding up the indictments” in the cases of ex-minister Michel Samaha and the Nahr al-Bared clashes, in a speech eulogizing slain Maj. Gen. Wissam a-Hasan, chief of the Internal Security Forces’ Intelligence Bureau. “I cannot […]

    The funeral for a top Lebanese security official has turned violent as protesters demanding the resignation of the government poured into the streets around central Beirut amid teargas, rock throwing and the occasional burst of gunfire by security forces. Lebanon’s political opposition had called upon protesters to use the funeral of General Wissam al-Hassan, […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Sunni Muslims took to the streets and burned tires across Lebanon in protest against the killing of senior intelligence official Wissam al-Hassan in a car bomb on Friday, witnesses said.Protesters, infuriated by the death of the prominent Sunni, blocked roads in the eastern Bekaa valley region, the northern area of Akkar, neighborhoods of the capital Beirut and in the southern city of Sidon. Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – a member of an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam – of being behind the huge car bomb which killed Hassan and at least seven other people in central Beirut on Friday. The attack has brought the violence in neighboring Syria to the Lebanese capital, confirming fears that the conflict is infecting the surrounding region.

Sunni Muslim protesters burn tires and block street in Beirut as they protest against kiling Senior Lebanese intelligence official al-Hassan

Firefighters extinguish fire at the scene of an explosion in Ashrafieh, central Beirut

People react as Lebanese policemen secure the scene of an explosion in Ashrafieh in Central Beirut

Raw: Car bomb rips through East Beirut

Members of civil defence and Lebanese civilians carry an injured man after an explosion

Lebanese Red Cross and civil defence personnel work at site of explosion in the Ashafriyeh

  A deadly car bomb blast which rocked a main square in Beirut on Friday brought back dark memories of Lebanon’s violent past and the civil war which tore the country apart. "We’ve seen this all before, we’ve grown up with it," said 34-year-old Bassam, who works in the Ashrafieh neighborhood where the bomb struck. The […]

  ولد وسام الحسن إبن بلدة بتوراتيج الكورانية العام 1965 وهي بلدةعرفت بشغفها بالسلك العسكري وحبها لخدمة الوطن. كان وسام الحسن ضابطا ً ملحقا ً برئيس الوزراء الراحل رفيق الحريري و مكلفا ً بمهمة البروتوكول ، وصودف عدم وجوده معه يوم إستشهاده في الرابع عشر من شباط 2005. عُين في العام 2006 رئيسا ً لشعبة […]

  Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan, chief of the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces, was killed on Friday in a car bomb attack in the Beirut district of Ashrafiyeh, state-run National News Agency reported. The powerful explosion rocked a street adjacent to Sassine Square in Ashrafiyeh, leaving seven other people dead and 78 others wounded, […]

  ARSAL: This Lebanese border town has become a safe haven for war-weary Syrian rebels, a way station for wounded fighters and home to hundreds of frightened Syrian refugee families. Residents of Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town of 40,000, say they have strong motives to help those trying to topple Syria’s regime: they themselves were harassed […]

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said on Wednesday that Arab Spring demonstrations are legal means for people to demand their political, social and economical rights, but these protests were hijacked and turned into violent conflicts. In a speech he gave during the General Bishops Synod in Rome, al-Rahi explained that “some countries took advantage of ongoing […]

  Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel inaugurated on Monday a new courtroom at Roumieh prison to speed up the trials for the Fatah al-Islam inmates, as 11 security personnel and two officers were referred to the Military Court over the recent prison break.   “The chamber at the prison is completely […]

  BEIRUT: Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said Monday his country was committed to helping Lebanon and supporting it in all circumstances, a statement by Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s press office said. “Qatar has a moral commitment to help Lebanon both before and after the 2008 Doha agreement,” the Qatari Emir said following talks […]