Bomb wounds top intelligence officer
Beirut (AsiaNews/Agencies) War-torn Lebanon is once again the scene of terrorist bombings. A blast today seriously wounded Lieutenant-Colonel Samir Shehade, a top official with the interior ministry's intelligence branch, who played a key role in the arrest of four pro-Syrian Lebanese general involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. According to al-Jazeera, he is in serious but stable conditions.
The blast occurred near the southern city of Saida (Sidon) and killed two people or four people depending on the source. Six people are said to have been wounded, all of them travelling in Shehade's convoy.
The remote-controlled device went off near his car in the village of Rimaila as the cars travelled on a road between two bridges.
Shehade, who lives in Sidon, was probably heading towards Beirut, where he works as deputy head of the information division at the Lebanese internal security forces.
The information division was involved in the arrest 13 al-Qaeda-linked suspects. And Shehade was among the officers involved in Lebanon's investigation in the February 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri.
His attempted murder comes ten days before Serge Brammertz, the UN chief investigator, is due to submit a report to the UN security council updating his findings into Hariri's death.
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02/06/2005
