[Wall Street Journal] Editorial - Wednesday's car bombing of Lebanese General Francois Hajj is something of a mystery because he was not an overt foe of Syria. Hajj made a name for himself earlier this year by routing Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni terrorist group that had been hiding out in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. This led to speculation that Hajj was killed by that group to avenge its defeat. While that may be true, what's more significant is that Fatah al-Islam is widely suspected of being controlled and aided by Damascus. The sophistication of the bomb that killed Hajj - a remote-control device similar to the one that killed anti-Syrian figures Gebran Tueni, Walid Eido and Antoine Ghanem - underscores that suspicion. On Tuesday, Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa remarked that "no one in Lebanon, even with foreign support, can win the battle against Syria." The next day Hajj was dead, which was a perfect illustration of Sharaa's point.
2007-12-17 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive