Lebanon mourns ex-minister killed in bombing

Lebanese mourners gathered in Beirut yesterday to bury Mohamed Chatah, a prominent critic of the Syrian regime, killed in a car bombing that revived painful memories of political assassinations.
Chatah, 62, a Sunni Muslim former finance minister and close aide to ex-prime minister Saad Hariri, was killed on Friday along with six other people.
Dozens of others were wounded in the blast in the heart of Beirut, raising fears about the fragile situation in Lebanon, which has seen the war in neighbouring Syria regularly spill over.
Heavy security was in place yesterday, as the body of Chatah and his bodyguard Tarek Badr were transported from western Beirut to a mosque downtown for prayers and burial.
"There is no God but God, the martyr is the beloved of God," mourners chanted as the bodies arrived.
Chatah will be interred at the mausoleum of Hariri's father Rafiq, who was also killed in a huge suicide bombing on the Beirut seafront on February 14, 2005.
His supporters blamed Hariri's death on the Syrian regime and its ally, the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.
Army vehicles were stationed around the area of yesterday's funeral at the Mohamed al-Amin mosque, and cars were forbidden from parking nearby.
Hundreds of mourners gathered, including distraught members of Chatah's family and political dignitaries.
His coffin was brought into the mosque draped in a green and cream-striped material with religious verses on it, alongside that of his bodyguard Badr.
Inside the mosque, the coffins were laid side by side, and relatives of the two men stood by them, crying.
One of Chatah's sons gripped a relative of Badr's, embracing him as they both wept.
Outside the mosque, mourners in black watched the proceedings on a large screen, one waving a Lebanese flag.
Behind them stood a lit Christmas tree and a newly-erected billboard declaring Chatah a "martyr for moderation".
President Michel Sleiman has declared yesterday a national day of mourning, and hundreds of Lebanese were paying their respects.
Chatah was seen as an influential figure in the March 14 coalition, which is opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its Lebanese ally, the Shia movement Hezbollah.
His assassination stirred painful memories of a string of bombings that hit Lebanon between 2005 and 2012, targeting prominent figures that were critical of the Syrian regime.