Word: beirutization
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...September 2004 a plot to blow up the Italian embassy in Beirut, above, was foiled when Lebanese authorities arrested 10 people, including al-Qaeda operative Ismail Mohammed al-Khatib. Al-Khatib died of a heart attack in custody...
...another prominent anti-Syrian figure has overshadowed the opposition's success in securing a majority in the new parliament. George Hawi, a former secretary-general of the Communist Party and a critic of Syria's domination of Lebanon, died when a bomb exploded beneath his Mercedes in a busy Beirut street. Hawi was the second anti-Syrian activist to die in June, and many in Lebanon blame the murders on Syria and its allies in the Lebanese intelligence services, though Syria denies involvement. Rising tensions seem unlikely to abate unless Emile Lahoud, the pro-Syrian President, resigns, but he refuses...
...Beirut, too, supporters of Gaddafi seemed keen to show off their thirst for vengeance. An extremist group called the Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims sent a four-minute videotape to the Beirut daily AnNahar showing a blindfolded man dangling from a scaffold. The victim appeared to be Alex Collett, 64, a British journalist who had been kidnaped 13 months ago. A statement accompanying the tape claimed that Collett had been executed in answer to the American air attack, as had three hostages who were found shot in Beirut a week earlier...
...Jihad, a pro-Iranian organization that is trying to secure the release of 17 imprisoned Arab terrorists in Kuwait. Islamic Jihad apparently considers the American hostages, while alive, a useful bargaining chip. Anxious to take no chances, however, both Washington and London evacuated dozens of their citizens from West Beirut last week, leaving only about 65 Westerners in the bloodstained Muslim-held area of the city...
Throughout, Western attention remained focused on Damascus. Both French and U.S. officials recall that the Syrians played a leading role last year in negotiating the release of 39 Americans held hostage aboard a TWA jet in Beirut, and that they helped free three Soviet hostages in Beirut last October. In Washington and Paris, the hope remains that something will come of Assad's promise to work quietly for the release of the Americans and Frenchmen held hostage. Simultaneously, the Hindawi trial is being closely watched to see whether it will yield any conclusive proof that Syria sponsors terrorism. --By Jill...