Lebanon’s deputy prime minister and defense minister Elias Murr survived a car bombing July 12 which left a bodyguard dead and several injured. The bomb was placed in car parked along the route of his motorcade in a Beirut suburb. He was the first pro-Syrian politician targetted in the recent wave of attacks in Lebanon. Druze leader Walid Jumblat claimed that the blast is linked to the investigation of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s assassination on Feb. 14. Jumblat alleged the assassination attempt on Murr is part of a plan to eliminate the eyewitnesses to Hariri’s assassination. (Zaman, Turkey, July 14) (See our recent story on Lebanon)
