Beirut blast kills al-Hariri....
A huge car bomb on Monday killed Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, a businessman turned politician who masterminded the country's reconstruction after its 1975-90 civil war.
At least 12 others, including several of al-Hariri's bodyguards, died when his motorcade was blown up as it passed through an upmarket section of Beirut's seafront, four months after he resigned as prime minister.
The explosion outside the St George Hotel gouged a deep crater in the road, ripped facades from luxury buildings, and set cars ablaze on streets strewn with rubble and broken glass.
Massive blast
Vehicles from al-Hariri's convoy were torn apart despite their armour plating. A senior security source said the cause was a car bomb.
"Everything around us collapsed," a Lebanese building worker at the site said. "It was as if an earthquake hit the area."
Lebanese security forces said on Monday they had stormed the Beirut home of a man they identified as a Palestinian and Syrian who appeared in a video claiming responsibility for the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister.
A Lebanese security source said Ahmad Abul Adif was not in the house. He had earlier appeared in a video aired by Aljazeera claiming responsibility for the killing of al-Hariri.
The White House condemned the killing and said Lebanon should be able to pursue its future "free from violence and intimidation and free from Syrian occupation", but added it did not know who killed Hariri and was not accusing Syria.
Syria blamed
The White House added that it would consult with UN Security Council members about taking punitive measures against those responsible for the killing, and to push for an end to the Syrian presence in Lebanon.
Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition accused the Syrian governments of responsibility for the assassination of Hariri and called for a three-day strike to protest his death.
"We hold the the Syrian government, the power behind it, responsible for the crime," MP
Lebanese voices calling for Damascus to pull out its 14,000 troops have grown louder in recent months, backed by a UN Security Council resolution calling for their withdrawal.