A car burns at the site in Ashrafieh

BEIRUT (Reuters) — Senior Lebanese intelligence official Wissam al-Hassan, who led the investigation that implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the killing of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, was killed in the Beirut explosion on Friday, a Lebanese official said.

“I can just say that it is true, he is dead,” the official, who worked with al-Hassan, told Reuters.

Al-Hassan was also the brain behind uncovering a recent bomb plot that led to the arrest of a Lebanese politician allied to President Bashar Assad.

Al-Hassan was no ordinary officer. He was a close aide to Hariri, a Sunni Muslim who was killed in a 2005 bomb attack.

He led the Hariri investigation and uncovered evidence that implicated Syria and Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim group in the killing.

Hariri supporters accused Syria and then Hezbollah of killing him — a charge they both deny. An international tribunal accused several Hezbollah members of involvement in the murder.

(www.maannews.net / 19.10.2012)