Anti-Syrian Demonstrations In Lebanon

Large crowds took to the streets in Beirut to mark the second anniversary of the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, the former premier of Lebanon. His murder is believed to have been conducted on Syria's orders. The Syrians and their allies, Hezbollah, have been trying to overturn the Lebanese government specifically to head off the formation of the international tribunal that is being organized to bring Hariri's killers to justice.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Around 300,000 Lebanese waving flags and blue balloons demonstrated in Beirut on Wednesday to honor Rafik al-Hariri, two years after the ex-premier's killing, and show support for the anti-Syrian government.

Police guarded Hariri's tomb in central Beirut's Martyrs Square where a digital sign showed 730 — the number of days that have passed without his assassins being brought to justice.

Hariri, a Sunni Muslim billionaire tycoon with close ties to Saudi Arabia and France, masterminded Lebanon's reconstruction after its 1975-90 civil war. He had fallen out with Syria, then the dominant power in Lebanon, in the months before his death.

"We are today in the hour of truth and the last leg for the setting up of the international tribunal, which will happen soon, very soon," Hariri's son Saad told the crowd.

The government and the U.N. Security Council have approved plans to establish the court to try Hariri's killers, over objections from the Hezbollah-led opposition and from Lebanon's pro-Syrian president. Parliament's approval is also required.

"We are ready for every courageous decision for the sake of Lebanon and for the sake of a solution in Lebanon, but the international tribunal is the only passage for any solution," Saad al-Hariri declared from behind a bullet-proof screen.

So far Hezbollah has been held at bay in their ambitions to try to seize power and topple the government. Not that they have not been trying every evil trick they have including bombing buses.

The explosions come a day before the second anniversary of the Hariri assassination. March 14 is planning a massive rally to commemorate the February 14 2005 killing of the former PM and at least 20 others.

Lebanon's civil war officially started with a bus massacre—gunmen attacked a bus on April 13 1975 carrying Palestinians in the Christian neighborhood of Ain El Remmeneh. The February 13 2007 attacks, which targeted Christians — the terrorists' favored targets since the Hariri assassination –  were probably designed to ignite another civil war on the eve of the commemorations.

According to Naharnet, Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh is claiming that the targeted buses were rented to carry participants in tomorrow's rally.

Update. The official death toll is three, with 20 injured. A 35 year old mother of two is among those killed.

The situation remains precarious.