BEIRUT, 26 September 2005 — A prominent Lebanese television journalist was in critical condition yesterday after a bomb ripped apart her car north of Beirut, Lebanese security officials said.
The blast targeting Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) anchorwoman May Chidiac occurred in Ghadir, a town near the Christian port city of Jounieh, in the afternoon.
LBC said the bomb had been planted under the driver’s seat of her Range Rover and exploded when she turned on the car’s ignition.
The station subsequently issued a statement saying “May’s condition is serious. She has had a hand and her left leg amputated.”
A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the bomb was made up of less than two pounds of plastic explosives. Television footage from the scene showed the car’s blood-splattered interior, with the left door blown off and the front of the vehicle a twisted wreck.
The blast is the latest in a string of bombings that have hit Lebanon, targeting predominantly Christian areas and anti-Syrian public figures, since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
LBC, a Christian TV station, is among the most prominent of anti-Syrian media outlets. Just hours before the bombing, Chidiac, 40, had hosted a program on the subject of possible Syrian involvement in the Hariri assassination.
The latest attack comes as Lebanon awaits the outcome of a UN probe into the Hariri’s death and raises fears the country is sliding back into violence. The country has been in an ongoing state of high alert while awaiting the report and several politicians have repeatedly gone abroad for fear of their lives.
