Bomb Wrecks Kaslik Shopping Mall to Show Lebanon Still Needs Syrian Protection

A bomb blast ripped a shopping mall in an elite commercial thoroughfare at
the coastal township of Kaslik north of Beirut early Wednesday, killing two
Asian janitors and sharpening fears of escalating violence apparently
designed to show that Lebanon still cannot afford a total Syrian departure.
Police said the victims were an Indian and a Pakistani who had long worked
as janitors in Kaslik's Alta Vista Tower, where four others -two Sri Lankans
and two Lebanese-- were. One injured Lebanese was treated on the spot for
minor cuts from flying glass and sent home while the other three were
hospitalized with critical wounds.

It was the second such bombing attack in five days. The first occurred at
suburban New Jdeideh on Beirut's northern edge at the southern flank of the
Metn district early Saturday, injuring 11 people. Kaslik is in the Kesrouan
district some 10 kilometers north of New Jdeideh. Both districts are part of
Lebanon's Christian heartland.

Kesrouan parliament members blamed the Kaslik bombing on Syrian-controlled
Lebanese intelligence services, calling both the Kaslik and New Jdeideh
bombings systematic acts of terrorism.

Legislator Farid Khazen said the Kaslik attack was a response by the
commanders of Lebanon's major security branches to the opposition demand
that they all be fired for failing to prevent ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's
assassination Feb. 14.

"Such attacks will escalate correspondingly with the progress of the process
of Lebanon's restoration of its sovereignty and independence," said
Legislator Nihmatallah Abi Nasr in an obvious reference to the advancement
of Syria's ongoing exit from Lebanon.

source: Naharnet