A top Lebanese security official closely allied to Sunni leader Saad Hariri was killed in the massive car bombing in Beirut early Friday, Liz Sly and Ahmed Ramadan of the Washington Post report.
The official. Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, headed the national police intelligence unit and was famous for having led the investigation that exposed the alleged role by the Shiite Hezbollah movement in the assassination of Hariri’s father in 2005.
“This is a big, big, big event, and one cannot begin even to think through the repercussions,” Mohammed Chatah, an adviser to Hariri, told the Post. “Wissam al-Hassan was a very important man in Lebanese politics, he was an important man in the great divide splitting the country and he was an important man in the police work that has uncovered many sensitive things.”
The advisor noted that the assassination can only be understood in light of al-Hassan's investigative work and closeness to the Hariri family.
The event, in which at least eight people died and dozens were injured, brings the violence threatening the region into the heart of Lebanon’s capital.
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