In Lebanon, outpouring of anger at ex-premier’s funeral

At least 150,000 Lebanese turned the funeral of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri on Wednesday into an outpouring of public anger agains...

At least 150,000 Lebanese turned the funeral of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri on Wednesday into an outpouring of public anger against Syria, blamed by Opposition leaders for the bomb that killed him.

‘‘Syria out, Syria out,’’ the mourners shouted as people threw rice from balconies onto an ambulance carrying the body of a man who had joined calls for Syrian troops to leave Lebanon. US envoy William F Burns, in Beirut for the funeral, said Syria must take Hariri’s death as a cue to end a military presence maintained since a 1976 civil war intervention and stop political meddling.

In tears, Hariri’s sons and relatives bore his coffin, draped in a Lebanese flag, from the ambulance into an unfinished mosque Hariri had financed in downtown Beirut.

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French President Jacques Chirac, a personal friend of Hariri, arrived in Beirut and went straight to the Hariri family mansion, where he presented his condolences.

Hariri’s family spurned government offers of a state funeral and made clear officials such as Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Omar Karami and Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh were not welcome .

US officials said they were considering new sanctions on Syria because of its refusal to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon and Washington’s belief that Damascus lets Palestinian militants and Iraqi insurgents operate on its soil.

Old civil war foes joined to honour Hariri’s passing. The red flags of a Druze-led party and the green cedar emblems of the Christian Phalangists fluttered side by side in the crowds.