Shatah, his Bodyguard Laid to Rest in Downtown Beirut
Slain former Finance Minister Mohammed Shatah and his bodyguard Tareq Bader were laid to rest on Sunday after a political and popular funeral in downtown Beirut.
The victims were buried at the mausoleum of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut.
Heavy security measures were in place Sunday around Beirut during the burialShatah and Tareq Bader, who were killed in a car bombing on Friday.
Shatah, 62, a Sunni Muslim former finance minister and adviser to former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, was killed by a car bomb in Beirut on Friday along with six other people.
Dozens of other people were wounded in the blast, which officials said involved about 50-60 kilograms (110-132 pounds) of explosives.
Political figures, including caretaker Premier Najib Miqati, March 14 officials, head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora, and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, continued to arrive at the Mohammed al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut to offer their condolences to Shatah's family.
President Michel Suleiman declared Sunday a day of national mourning, and several army vehicles were stationed around Beirut's downtown area, where Shatah was killed.
Cars were forbidden from parking along main roads in the area during the funeral.
Shatah was seen as an influential figure in the March 14 coalition, which is opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and its Hizbullah.
He was interred at the mausoleum of Hariri's father Rafik, who was also killed in a huge suicide bombing on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005, an assassination his supporters blamed on Syria.
Friday's attack revived painful memories of bombings that rocked the country between 2005 and 2012, targeting prominent figures critical of Damascus.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but March 14 implied Damascus and Hizbullah were behind it without naming them, saying in a statement that "the criminal is the same, he who is thirsty for the blood of Syrians... he and his Lebanese allies."
Syria has denied the "wrong and arbitrary accusations," while Hizbullah said the bombing was aimed at destroying "national unity".
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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