"The bomb sent a column of smoke into the sky, tore masonry from buildings and destroyed at least six cars in a Christian suburb north of Beirut, as well as damaging the armored four-wheel-drive embassy car."
By Tom Perry for Reuters:
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A car bomb damaged a U.S. diplomatic car in Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding 16, and the U.S. State Department said no Americans died in the blast.
The bomb sent a column of smoke into the sky, tore masonry from buildings and destroyed at least six cars in a Christian suburb north of Beirut, as well as damaging the armored four-wheel-drive embassy car.
The blast coincided with U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Saudi Arabia as part of a week-long tour of U.S. Middle East allies.
Bush is not visiting Lebanon, though Washington has been a strong backer of the Beirut government in its power struggle with the Hezbollah-led opposition backed by Syria.
The Lebanese government put the death toll at three but the U.S. State Department said the bomb killed four Beirut residents. None worked for the embassy.
"There were no American diplomats or American citizens in the car at the time," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. A Lebanese national working for the U.S. embassy and a driver were in the car when it was attacked, and the driver was slightly wounded, he said. An American passer-by was also hurt.
Lebanese and U.S. security officials were at the scene, where rescue workers covered a corpse with plastic sheeting. Pools of blood covered the road. Two of the dead were Lebanese and the third a Syrian, security sources said.
"I'd like ... to just state the outrage of the United States against the terrorist attack that took place in Lebanon today," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is traveling with Bush, told a news conference in Riyadh.
"I'd like ... to just state the outrage of the United States against the terrorist attack that took place in Lebanon today," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is traveling with Bush, told a news conference in Riyadh.
"And this time, we're really going to do something about it. Seriously. We are going to postively insist that Israel give up the occupied Golan so that Syria will stop sending Islamic Jihad types to Lebanon to bomb us. Because Israel occupying land in dar al islam is not at all helpful."
"'I'd like ... to just state the outrage of the United States against the terrorist attack that took place in Lebanon today,' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is traveling with Bush, told a news conference in Riyadh."
I wonder what was in the ellipses, anyway, since it's hard to imagine a word or phrase that wouldn't render Ms. Rice's statement even more syntactically flawed.
For the record, I'd just like to state (in English, and I don't even have a PhD!) my outrage that Condi and her boss are incensed "against the terror attack" but not, apparently, against the ideology and culture behind it. This thinking shows how completely brainwashed are the "war on terror" folks. They don't even want to consider the identity of the bad guys doing bad things; they just want the bad things to stop happening.
Simply pull the covers over your head, try to go to sleep, and everything will be alright. But if you look under the bed first, there just might be (because you looked) someone hiding there!
Of course, I'm sure Rice is considering (in broken English) the possibility that the bombing was carried out by the Jews.
Of course, I'm sure Rice is considering (in broken English) the possibility that the bombing was carried out by the Jews.
Posted by: Haid Dasalami
Hence the "outrage of the United States".