Passions run high as region's three hotspots ignite
The Middle East was literally on fire on Wednesday as a senior Lebanese MP was killed in a car bomb that also claimed nine other lives in Beirut, hours after saboteurs destroyed two minarets of a holy Shiite shrine in Iraq, site of a 2006 bombing that shattered its golden dome and unleashed a wave of sectarian violence.
Dubai: The Middle East was literally on fire yesterday as a senior Lebanese MP was killed in a car bomb that also claimed nine other lives in Beirut, hours after saboteurs destroyed two minarets of a holy Shiite shrine in Iraq, site of a 2006 bombing that shattered its golden dome and unleashed a wave of sectarian violence.
In Gaza, the power struggle intensified between rival movements Hamas and Fatah. At least 22 people were killed yesterday. The chaotic scene is likely to inflame religious and political tensions in the region. Analysts also warned the Arab world was descending into a "systematic collapse."
In Lebanon, an explosion, apparently from a bomb-rigged car, rocked Beirut's seafront, killing prominent lawmaker Walid Eido, his son and eight others.
He was a senior aid to former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was also killed in a car blast in 2005. Eido, a former Sunni judge, is the seventh politician to be killed since Hariri.
Eido's murder would further fuel tensions between the government and the opposition led by Hezbollah. The blast was the latest in a series to hit Lebanon in the last three weeks as Lebanese troops battled militants in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr Al Bared.
Following the killings, Lebanon's parliamentary majority leader Sa'ad Hariri blamed Syria for Eido's murder and called for the Arab League to "boycott the terrorist regime" targeting his country.
Hours earlier, a group said to belong to Al Qaida in Iraq blew up two minarets of Samarra's Al Askari shrine. The assault stirred fears of a new explosion of sectarian bloodshed. To try to ward off an upsurge in Iraq's unending cycle of violence, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki swiftly imposed an indefinite curfew on traffic and large gatherings in Baghdad. Before the curfew took hold, arsonists set fire to a Sunni mosque in Baghdad, and another Shiite shrine was blown apart north of the capital. The Interior Ministry said members of "a terrorist group" had been arrested and were being interrogated.
Mousa convenes meeting
The White House promised an all-out effort to prevent the attack from sparking a surge in violence. "What we're hoping is that there won't be a new wave" of clashes, said spokesman Tony Snow, who blamed Al Qaida for the attack.
In Gaza, Hamas fighters and forces loyal to Fatah movement battled for control of the strip in an escalating Palestinian supremacy struggle described by Gazans as a civil war.
At least 22 people were killed yesterday, raising the death toll since the current surge of bloodshed began to 70, hospital officials said.
"This cycle of violence threatens the future of the entire region," Dr Abdul Khaliq Abdullah, a UAE professor of politial science told Gulf News last night.
Mainly extremist parties and religious terrorists are "trying to undermine stability and prevailing regimes," he added.
Late last night, Al Jazeera TV quoted officials as saying that Arab League chief Amr Mousa had convened an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers to discuss the worsening violence in the region.
Your comments
The Arab League is hopless, never taken any action. I think they are only warming seats.
Hussain
Doha,Qatar
What are the common denominators that are causing trouble in the Mideast - Iran, Syria, and Hamas. But the Arab League is ineffectual or refuses to face the fact that the Persians want to be the cocks of the walk of the entire region.When is the Arab League going to do something before Iran goes nuclear if that happens then it won't matter what the Arabs think.
Melvin
Jacksonville,USA
