The main offices of the Lebanese Premier, Rafic al Hariri's media empire, Future-TV and Radio Asharq, came under a missile strike in Beirut's seafront district of Raouche overnight Sunday. The local police said a bloodbath in the residential neighborhood had been "miraculously avoided," A Nahar website reported.
Initial investigation by the authorities indicated that two 107-mm missiles were fired from a white BMW-530 car parked near the main gate of the building, housing the news department of Future-TV and Asharq radio station at 1:30 a.m. Beirut time, setting the three-floor facility afire.
Police officers on the scene, which was cordoned off for three hours before dawn, said the two rockets were detonated by a timing mechanism attached to the car, which was reduced to a pile of smoldering metal. The wreckage was taken to police headquarters for possible fingerprint marks.
Information Minister Michel Samaha stated a nighttime guard at the network managed to remove four gas bottles from the building before fire could reach them and "thus rescued the neighborhood from potential carnage."
The attack came a few hours after Hariri had returned from visits to Brazil and France. But Samaha said "this is definitely a political message which will certainly deciphered soon."
Hariri made a personal inspection tour of the Future-TV headquarters Sunday morning, urging the staff not to be intimidated and to continue their mission in the service of Lebanon and Lebanon's free media. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
