beirut manara blast, broken windows, assassination of walid eido, atleast 8 dead

manara bomb, windows broken, lebanon, beirut, first bomb intent on killing.
Category: News and Politics

via my online life, I've just been speaking with marina and heard the horrible news that a bomb has just gone off less than a block away from the house I used to live in, the same house on Beirut's seafront that Marina is still living in now. Most news sites are reporting that the blast killed an anti-syrian lawmaker Walid Eido, his son, and his two bodyguards, plus a few innocent bystanders.

On a strange sidenote, there's this taxi driver who always parks at the beginning of the entrance to that area and though he would always try and rip me off I hope he wasn't parked there tonight.

The highest count of total deceased from this blast is ten, once again relayed to me via msn messenger from one of the coaches from GAM3. His profile picture is of him standing next to Saad Hariri, the son of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In case it's unclear, and I'm sure it still will be, Rafik Hariri founded the Future Movement Party who are staunchly anti-Syrian, the same party that Walid Eido belonged to. Coach Mohammed was obviously upset and shaken, "fuck Syria," "fuck them all." And though it may sound dramatic, Lebanese can come across that way, he wrote to me that, " we will not stop we want our freedom."

This isn't good. From what I can tell this is the first bomb in this most recent string of blasts set with the intent to kill and not simply scare. As I type this Marina is cleaning the glass from the broken windows in our bedroom and Ya Libnan is reporting that the amusement park across from where we live has been "totally destroyed." Marina disputes that last part, as she can see it across the street. She described her experience from the living room of our Caracas home via msn messenger, "you feel it in your stomach and it seems like it goes on forever." From our balcony she said that tons of windows all over the neighborhood are blown out, including the glass at our downstairs hamurger spot, Hani's Snack. Marina's a little shaken up, but she's fine and I should hear from her as soon as Charles finishes writing his blog on our computer. He's a familiar face around our house and happened to be at a cafe no more than 50 feet from the bomb when it went off.

As for myself, i've felt better. The feeling of helplessness is similar, but not the same as '06's summer Hezbollah/Israeli war. Last year, Marina and I were both in the states together watching the poor coverage of the conflict, but this time she's still there and this latest string of bombings has affected us far more directly than any of this has before. Luckily, I've only been back in the states about a week, so the my imagination isn't taking off. I'm very clear on the extent of the damage and have no fear of becoming overly worried.

As for the country of Lebanon, the lives lost and the structural damage caused so far could pale in comparison to the aftermath that this might all bring. It's safe to say that Lebanon is creeping closer to the abyss that is civil war, a conclusion that could leave this last summer's conflict overshadowed, a sidenote in the pages of history when we look back at this era for lebanon. Inshalla, cooler heads will prevail.

this pics were taken in the alley where the latest explosion went off, the same alley Marina and I would take relaxing walks to the tasty, if not deserted, Maharaja Indian Restaurant.

above: on the left you can see two cabs, they don't look too badly damaged so hopefully their drivers will be free to rip off tourists for the rest of their lives. On the right is the back wall of the Luna Amusement Park and above it (not in picture) is where the ferris wheel Marina and I took pictures from when we first got back to beirut in the fall. You can see them in my beirut photos album. Behind the building on the right is where the bumper cars were. Hopefully there weren't any kids riding around at the time.

Lebanese people help an injured man after a bomb exploded in a narrow street off the main waterfront in Manara
Sources: Ya Libnan, AP

I'm in DC right now and had a whole 'nother blog planned, but it'll have to wait.