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| Str / AFP - Getty Images Ex-ambassador to US and finance minister Mohammed Chatah, in this undated file photo. |
BEIRUT - The former Lebanese ambassador to the United States was killed early Friday by a bomb explosion close to the government headquarters in central Beirut that also killed at least four others.
Mohammad Chatah, who was a senior aide to former prime minister Saad Hariri, was attending a meeting of senior leaders of the March 14 political party. The party is staunchly opposed to the regime of Bashar Assad in neighboring Syria and critical of Shiite militia and political party Hezbollah inside of Lebanon.
The blast, which targeted Chatah's convoy, set cars on fire and sent black smoke billowing into the sky above the recently-reconstructed upscale business and zone of Beirut, close to the Intercontinental Phoenica Hotel.
Four others were killed in the explosion, which was heard across the city at 9:40 a.m. local time (2.40 a.m. ET), Lebanese medical sources said.
Chatah's driver was among the the victims, according to Reuters, citing security sources.
A Reuters witness at the scene said Chatah's car was "totally destroyed. It is a wreck."
The army cordoned off the area to prevent people from getting close to the scene, where the twisted wreckage of several cars was still smoldering. The explosion appeared to be the result of the car bomb, but security officials said they had no immediate confirmation.
Hariri heads the main, Western-backed coalition in Lebanon and is engaged in bitter feuding with Hezbollah group, which is allied to Assad, who is embroiled in an increasingly brutal civil war.
Chatah was also a prominent economist and former finance minister. He also served at the IMF and was former vice governor of Banque di Liban.
He was one of the closest aides to Hariri's father, Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese prime minister who was himself killed in a truck bombing in Beirut in 2005, not far from Friday's explosion.
Source: NBC News
