Reuters reports that a car bomb killed Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri:
Hariri's motorcade was blown up as it passed along an exclusive section of the city's waterfront Corniche.
The explosion close to the St George Hotel gouged a deep crater out of the road, ripped facades from luxury buildings and left half a dozen cars ablaze on streets carpeted with rubble.
[. . .]
Hariri, a billionaire businessman who resigned from government last October, had recently joined calls by the opposition for Syrian troops to quit Lebanon in the run-up to a general election in May.
According to the BBC, Mr Hariri has been the leading Lebanese politician since the end of the civil war in 1990, and prime minister for most of the last 15 years. He resigned in October amid differences with Lebanon's pro-Syrian President, Emile Lahoud.
CNN's Brent Sadler provides some perspective on the bombing hinting that the bombing may be related to efforts to get Syria to stop meddling in Lebanon's affairs:
CNN correspondent Brent Sadler was near the scene when it happened and told CNN anchor Monita Rajpal: "I haven't seen anything on this scale in Beirut since the dark days of the civil war."
MONITA RAJPAL: Was there any warning, any speculation, any fears or concerns that there could be a terrorist attack?
BRENT SADLER: There have been concerns raised in various quarters. Let me just set the scene for you, Monita. The Lebanese are in the throws of a fierce political battle over Syria's involvement in Lebanese political and military affairs. There's a lot of international pressure on Syria right now to stop meddling in Lebanon's affairs. Lebanon today has a very staunchly pro-Syrian Lebanese government. There is an emerging opposition front, the kind of opposition uniting, that we haven't seen in Lebanon in recent history. Really coming up against what they see as Syria's control and domination of this country.
A few weeks ago there was an assassination attempt against a leading opposition figure who survived the attempt on his life. There have been many concerns in some quarters here that the political conflict might somehow go off into violence. Now, that's jumping from one conclusion to another. There's no evidence or confirmation that these are linked.
This explosion is set against a background of what people here have been concerned about -- openly concerned about -- and what the U.S. administration has also been concerned about. Making it clear to all parties involved in the political tug of war that there are red lines in terms of acts of violence against anybody who is involved in the political arena here. But certainly now we first have to await preliminary investigations into what's caused this blast.
But on the surface of it, the Lebanese are looking at this with a very concerned attitude indeed, not least for the casualties. We have to wait for what the casualty details are but certainly the Lebanese will be very concerned about just what is behind the explosion, whether it's linked to political conflict right now or whether it's something else terror-related.
There have been allegations that there are al Qaeda extremist supporters that operate in Lebanon, in the Palestinian refugee camps, particularly. There is certainly the potential, has always been the potential, for terror to reappear in Lebanon. Obviously the government is at pains to stress that Lebanon in a secure country, Beirut a secure city, after its own 15-year civil war, which ended in 1991. And for Lebanon to go back to those dark days of terror of the 1980s, if this is the case it will certainly cause a lot of anxiety -- not just here in Lebanon, but throughout this region.
The Command Post is also covering this story.
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