BREAKING NEWS: Bomb Attack Kills Lebanese Druze Politician
Posted by W. Thomas Smith Jr. on 11 September 2008 at 2:34 am UTC
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Sheik Saleh Aridi, a ranking member of Youth and Sports Minister Talal Arslan’s Lebanese Democratic Party (LDP), was killed today when a bomb planted beneath his (Aridi’s) Mercedes sedan detonated in front of his home in the Druze hills southeast of Beirut.
At least six others were injured in the blast.
According to the AP:
“Police said the charge was stuck under the body of car, below the driver’s seat, and blew up as the car rolled. Officials believe it was triggered either by remote control or by a motion sensor. …
“It was the first political assassination in about a year in Lebanon and came less than a week before planned reconciliation talks among rival Lebanese factions. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora contacted Druse leaders and joined them in calling for calm.”
Receiving the report, I touched base briefly with Middle East terrorism expert Dr. Walid Phares (currently traveling and between flights), who says the assassination is the work of Hezbollah.
“They want to provoke bloodshed among the Druze,” says Phares. “This is designed by Syria and Hezbollah to strike back at Jumblatt.”
In other words, the assassination is an attempt to spark new violence between the two primary rival Druze factions: Arslan’s LDP and parliamentarian Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party.
Additional information will follow.
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