US pulls ambassador from Syria

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered US ambassador Margaret Scobey home from Syria amid rising tensions over the assassination of for...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered US ambassador Margaret Scobey home from Syria amid rising tensions over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in Beirut, a US official said today.

Before departing, Scobey delivered a demarche to the Syrian government, said the official.The Bush administration condemned on Monday the killing of the billionaire construction magnate who masterminded the recovery of his country from the 1975-90 civil war and insisted that Syria comply with a UN resolution calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

Lebanon mourned al-Hariri on Tuesday as opposition leaders bluntly implicated Syria in the car blast killed him. Syrian workers were attacked in the former prime minister8217;s hometown and the Lebanese army went on alert ahead of al-Hariri8217;s funeral, planned for Wednesday.

8216;8216;This Lebanese regime is backed by the Syrians. This is the regime of terrorists and terrorism that was able yesterday to wipe out Rafik al-Hariri,8217;8217; Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said after presenting his condolences to Hariri8217;s family in Beirut.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in the Sunni port city of Tripoli and hundreds demonstrated in Hariri8217;s hometown of Sidon, shouting slogans blaming Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for his death. A crowd assaulted Syrian workers with sticks and stones near Hariri8217;s brother8217;s house in Sidon, injuring five of them. A Syrian lorry was set on fire in north Lebanon.

Exiled former general Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian and long-time foe of Syria, said Damascus was indirectly, if not directly, responsible for the Hariri8217;s killing.

Interior Minister Suleiman Franjieh said a suicide car bomber might have carried out the attack, which gouged a crater in the middle of the road as Hariri8217;s convoy drove by.

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A previously unknown Islamist group said on Monday it had carried out a suicide attack against Hariri. Hours later Lebanese security forces raided the Beirut home of a identified as a Palestinian who had read the videotaped claim of responsibility. A security source said Ahmed Tayseer Abu Adas was not in the house.