Assassins Kill Hariri by Mechanically Detonated One-Ton Bomb

Explosive experts are subscribing to a theory that Hariri was killed by a one-ton charge rigged into underground sewage or city water tubes that was mechanically detonated once his motorcade was spotted by naked eye passing over the bomb, media reports said Wednesday. This theory explains why the sophisticated jamming systems installed in Hariri's armor-plated limousines had failed to neutralize the bombing and save him had the attack been staged by remote-controlled roadside bombing or a car-bomb driven by a suicide attacker. The assassination scene abutted a ditch carved 10 days ago for underground public works repairs of the sewage system. Retired army Brig. Gen. Shehadeh Maalouf told the LBCI Tuesday evening that as a seasoned explosives specialist he is inclined to subscribe to the underground mechanically detonated bombing. "I am not ruling out a remote-controlled roadside bombing or a suicide driver crashing his car-bomb into the motorcade. But the exceptionally huge crater caused by the blast makes me more inclined to the underground tunnel theory," Maalouf said. Every five-meter part of a sewage or water tube can take 500 kilograms of explosives, other experts say. Opposition sources at Koreitem told Naharnet that experts of Hariri's Oger company were convinced that between a 1,000 and 1,500 kilograms of T-4 high-powered explosives were used in the assassination.