Jumblat Finally Says it in Public: 'Baathists Assassinated my Father'

Walid Jumblat has effectively accused Syria for the first time in public of assassinating his father, Kamal Jumblat, in a 1977 gunfire ambush in the Chouf region at the height of the first round of Lebanon's civil war. The charge the Druze leader hurled was seen as emphatic confirmation that his confrontation with President Assad's regime in Damascus had crossed the point of no return.He was lashing back at Assem Kansou, Secretary-General of Syria's ruling Baath Party branch in Lebanon, who accused Jumblat of stabbing Syria in the back on behalf of the U.S. and France and vowed to "crucify you over the garbage dump of history.""I want to remind the Baathist bands," Jumblat retorted, "that they had assassinated Kamal Jumblat in the name of Arabism, may their pretended Arabism be cursed," Jumblat said after the meeting of his parliament bloc at his Beirut house in Rue Clemenceau on Thursday, according to An Nahar Friday.