By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer BEIRUT, Lebanon – Following Lebanon’s third bombing in eight days, President Emile Lahoud pledged Sunday to fight the violence gripping his country since last month’s assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri. Saturday’s blast at an industrial property in the mainly Christian northeastern suburb of Bouchrieh injured five people and set at least six factories ablaze. The attack followed bombings on March 19 and March 23 that targeted two Christian strongholds, killing three people and wounding at least 10. “We will do all we can. We should all be united because this is how we can save the country,” Lahoud, a Maronite Christian and close Syrian ally, vowed after attending Easter Mass.
Lahoud has come under intense pressure from Lebanese opposition groups since Hariri’s Feb. 14 killing, which many here have blamed on Syria and its allies in Lebanon, including Lahoud’s government. Both governments vehemently deny such claims.
Opponents of Syria’s grip on Lebanese politics also blamed Damascus for launching the recent bombings in an effort to prove Syrian troops are needed to maintain security in Lebanon, which was ravaged by sectarian violence during its 1975-90 civil war. Syrian soldiers deployed to Lebanon in 1976 as a stabilizing force but remained after the war stopped to become the country’s main powerbroker.
The bombings came amid Syria’s troop withdrawal from Lebanon, insisted upon by the United States, former colonial power France and the United Nations (news – web sites) after Hariri’s killing.
A top U.S. envoy denounced the latest attacks during a meeting Sunday with Druse opposition leader Walid Jumblatt.
“They are aimed directly at the people of Lebanon and I think the people of Lebanon are confident in their ability to proceed in a matter that tells those responsible they will not be frightened,” David Satterfield said.
But the pro-Syrian Phalange party’s leader, Karim Pakradouni, accused opposition forces of seeking the instability to invite international military intervention in Lebanon.
About 1,000 Syrian soldiers remaining in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley started heading back across the border to Syria in recent days, a Lebanese military official said Saturday. The redeployments follow the return to Syria of 4,000 soldiers in the first phase of the troop withdrawal completed on March 17.
About 10,000 Syrian soldiers remain in Lebanon.