The Hindu : International : Syria has a "hit list" in Lebanon

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Sunday, Jun 12, 2005

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International

Syria has a "hit list" in Lebanon

Brian Whitaker

``The whole Opposition is targeted''

BEIRUT: The U.N. special envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, is flying to Damascus this weekend for urgent talks with the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, amid concern that Syrian intelligence agents are still operating in Lebanon.

Syria insists that all its troops and officials have left Lebanon as required by the Security Council resolution 1559.

But suspicions that some intelligence agents remain were raised by the assassination of Samir Qaseer, a prominent anti-Syrian journalist, in Beirut last week.

The Washington Post and New York Times have both quoted a Bush administration official as saying the U.S. had received credible information of a Syrian hit list targeting Lebanese political figures.

Lebanon's anti-Syrian Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, also said Syrian intelligence officers were still in the country.

``There seems to be a decision somewhere, with or without the knowledge of President Assad, to carry on with the assassinations,'' he said in an interview with LBC television on Thursday night. ``The whole opposition is targeted.''

Series of bombings

Besides the murder of Qaseer and the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February, there has also been a series of bombings in mainly Christian parts of Lebanon.

Last month, a U.N. verification team certified that all Syrian troops had left the country but added that the secretive nature of intelligence services made it difficult to be sure that all Syrian agents had gone.

In his TV interview Mr. Jumblatt said several officers, including the former intelligence chief Rustum Ghazaleh were visiting Lebanon regularly and intervening in the parliamentary elections, which are being held over four weeks. —

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