BEIRUT, Lebanon -An angry mob attacked Syrian workers in southern Lebanon yesterday, blaming Damascus for the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and the interior minister suggested the killing might have been carried out by a suicide bomber.
Syria has denied any involvement in Hariri's assassination, which raised fears that Lebanon might revert to the political violence of the 1970s and 80s, and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut warned Americans in the Lebanese capital to exercise extreme caution.
Condemnation and expressions of shock came from around the Arab world and beyond. The United States recalled its ambassador to Syria, a decision that reflected the Bush administration's profound outrage
according to State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.
Before his assassination, Hariri had positioned himself in opposition to a faction more solidly backed by Syria, which maintains 15,000 troops here since the civil war ended in 1990 and has the final say in internal Lebanese politics.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said the U.N. Security Council was working on a declaration yesterday demanding that the Lebanese government bring to justice those responsible for the assassination and could adopt it later.
For us it is very important that the text can effectively express today and without waiting the unanimity of the international community in condemning this criminal and odious act Ladsous said.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said yesterday he saw no immediate need to change EU relations with Syria, but supported an international investigation into the bombing. EU relations, he added, could change depending on how the responsibilities on the assassination of Mr. Hariri are resolved.
Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh suggested that, based on the crater in the middle of the road and preliminary reports, the attack might have been carried out by a suicide bomber who rammed Hariri's motorcade with a vehicle laden with explosives.
Although most suspicion has fallen on Syria or its supporters in Lebanon, it was clear the possibilities also might include rogue Syrian intelligence operatives, or even factions among the country's myriad religious groups. Claims of responsibility by Islamic militants also raised the possibility that Hariri had been targeted because of his close ties to Saudi Arabia.
Justice Minister Adnan Addoum played down that possibility, and Hariri's political allies openly accused Syria and its Lebanese allies of being to blame.
In Hariri's hometown of Sidon on southern Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, dozens of demonstrators attacked Syrian workers yesterday, slightly wounding five before police intervened. Hundreds of others marched in the streets. Black banners and pictures of the slain leader covered the streets as the country began three days of official mourning.
On Monday night, a mob attacked the offices of the Lebanese chapter of Syria's ruling Baath Party in Beirut with stones and set fire to shacks used to exchange money and sell cigarettes in front of it.
Police said the toll from the bombing was 14 dead and about 120 injured. A claim of responsibility by a previously unknown Islamic militant group -Support and Jihad in Syria and Lebanon -was not considered credible, with Addoum warning it could be an attempt to mislead the investigation.
At the site of the bombing, cordoned off by troops, experts combed rooftops and the street for evidence. Residents swept debris from their balconies; at the HSBC bank, workers cleared glass shards and blinds from shattered windows, throwing them down to the street.
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