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Bomb blast came from drainage system { February 16 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/541131.htmlInterior Minister Suleiman Franjieh suggested a suicide bomber backed by "international parties" may have killed Hariri, but said he could not confirm the theory. Media and expert speculation has suggested the bomb was placed in an underground drainage system.
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/541131.html
Wed., February 16, 2005 Adar1 7, 5765
Last Update: 16/02/2005 13:17
Hundreds of thousands mourn slain ex-Lebanese PM Hariri
By The Associated Press
BEIRUT - Screaming and weeping mourners clambered around the coffin carrying the Lebanese flag-draped body of former prime minister Rafik Hariri as hundreds of thousands of people attended an emotion-charged funeral service Wednesday at a mosque, two days after a huge bomb killed the man credited for rebuilding post-civil war Lebanon.
Suspicions over Syrian involvement in Hariri's assassination further charged the atmosphere, with his family and supporters warning officials of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government to stay away.
Internationally, pressure mounted to find his killers, with Washington recalling its ambassador and the United Nations Security Council demanding Lebanon catch bring those responsible for Hariri's slaying.
More than 200,000 people crowded into central Beirut square around the towering Mohammed al-Amin Mosque, which Hariri built. It is also where the billionaire businessman who was Lebanon's prime minister for 10 of the 14 years following the end of the 1975-90 civil was is to be buried.
The crowd was the largest seen in Lebanon except for the 1997 mass delivered in Beirut by Pope John Paul II that attracted almost 1 million people.
The funeral, policed by a huge security operation started at Hariri's palatial Koreitem compound then wound 3 kilometers through the capital's streets before arriving at his eventual burial place at the towering Mohammed al-Amin mosque, construction of which he funded.
Grieving relatives, including his three sons, carried the billionaire businessman's coffin, draped in a red, white and green Lebanese flag, out of an ambulance and through a heaving crowd of more than 200,000 people who had gathered outside the mosque or followed the procession.
Many mourners scrambled to touch the casket as it passed by in a sign of respect as thousand of others chanted the Arabic words for "There is no God but Allah."
Hariri's eldest son, Baha, climbed on top of several people's shoulders to yell into a microphone demanding calm from the heaving crowd as his father's coffin arrived at the mosque.
"We don't want his last minutes to be like this, step back away from his body," he pleaded.
Hariri's remains were first brought to his home earlier Wednesday from the American University Hospital, where his body was first taken following Monday's huge car bombing that killed him and 16 others.
His body was later placed in one of at least six ambulances - one each to carry the coffin of Hariri and five of his bodyguards slain in Monday's huge bomb blast - for transport to the mosque.
With sirens wailing, the ambulances carrying the caskets were followed on foot by Hariri's three sons, who led a sea of mourners waving flags and banners and holding portraits of the billionaire tycoon. Hariri was credited by many with rebuilding the civil war-ravaged country.
Breaking with Islamic tradition, hundreds of weeping women waving white handkerchiefs joined men in the march. This and the participation of Sunni Muslim clerics, white turban-wearing Druse religious leaders and ordinary Lebanese Shiites and Christians demonstrated Hariri's great popularity and ability to reach across potentially volatile sectarian divides.
Beirut church bells rang loudly as the procession neared, mashing with a cacophony of military band drum beats and mourners chanting slogans and Islamic prayers through megaphones.
Along the procession route, residents pasted hundreds of pictures of Hariri and hung national flags from balconies, from which many Beirutis showered marching mourners with rice in a traditional sign of welcome.
Those who could not come to Beirut had their own symbolic processions. At his hometown of Sidon in south Lebanon, about 250 students a symbolic coffin from a school built by and named after Hariri to a nearby mosque that he also constructed in honor of his father, Bahaaeddine Hariri.
The Beirut procession turned into a spontaneous anti-Syrian demonstration, with visibly enraged mourners shouting insults at Syrian President Bashar Assad and demanding him to "remove your dogs from Beirut," a reference to Syrian intelligence agents, part of an overall contingent of 15,000 troops deployed in the country since 1976.
Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam, a close family friend, arrived at the mosque ahead of the funeral service, but did not take part in the procession. He was a frequent visitor of Hariri. Absent from the procession were members of the Lebanese government, who were warned by Hariri supporters and relatives not to attend.
Many in Lebanon blame Syria for carrying out - or at least having a hand -in Hariri's killing. Syria denies the charge and has instead condemned the assassination.
Hariri resigned last year amid opposition to a Syrian-backed constitutional amendment that enabled his rival, the pro-Damascus Emile Lahoud, to extend his term as Lebanon's president.
State-run Syrian television carried the funeral coverage live, picking up from Lebanon's national TV station.
Regional and foreign officials, including U.S. assistant secretary of state responsible for Middle East affairs, William Burns, arrived in Beirut to join thousands of Lebanese at the mosque. In France, President Jacques Chirac's office said he was going to Beirut to pay his condolences to Hariri's wife and family. Chirac and Hariri were friends.
As Lebanese grieved on the second of three days of national mourning, international pressure mounted against this country to find Hariri's killers.
Washington announced it was recalling its ambassador from Syria amid speculation that Damascus - which the United States has long criticized for exerting too much control over Lebanon - had a hand in Hariri's killing. The Bush administration also renewed calls on Damascus to withdraw its soldiers from Lebanon - the latest spike in U.S.-Syrian tensions.
The UN Security Council approved a statement urging the Lebanese government "bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of this heinous terrorist act." Lebanon's interior minister suggested a suicide bomber aided by "international parties" may have been behind it.
Syria deployed its forces to Lebanon during the civil war, but remained following the end of the conflict. Its continued presence is a source of frustration for many Lebanese, who oppose Syrian interference in their country's affairs, and for the international community, particularly Washington.
Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh suggested a suicide bomber backed by "international parties" may have killed Hariri, but said he could not confirm the theory. Media and expert speculation has suggested the bomb was placed in an underground drainage system.
Some have suggested the killing was carried out by rogue Syrian intelligence operatives, or even factions among Lebanon's myriad religious groups. Lebanese authorities have described responsibility claims by previously unknown Islamic militants as not credible.
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