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| Photo: Now Lebanon |
The partially burnt ID papers allegedly belonging to a suicide bomber have emerged as the key piece of evidence in last week’s Haret Hreik explosion in south Beirut.
But MP Khaled Daher held a press conference today mocking the discovery as fantastical. Watch this one minute snippet I captured:
He begins by advising all those targeted in assassinations to carry their ID papers close, because these papers are apparently fireproof and bombproof.
“Who would not believe that a Lebanese ID paper lands safely while bodies and steel car parts are torn to pieces?
“What kind of ID paper flies through the air to the 8th floor? These Lebanese ID papers should be entered into the Guinness Book. It’s a spectacular ID. It should be used as a shield for anyone that feels targeted in Lebanon.”
The subtext here is that Daher represents a region in North Lebanon from which the bomber–or at least the person named on the ID card–comes from. Daher is also a member of the anti-Hezbollah political alliance and is thus claiming that Hezbollah has invented this piece of evidence to attack his constituents, many of whom support the Syrian opposition.
But while Daher claims the bombing was a “natural” retribution for Hezbollah’s “hellish” involvement in the Syrian war, he himself has been accused of involvement in the Syrian war by supporting and supplying Syrian rebels.
Interestingly Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV covered bits of this press conference, but they conveniently cut out any references to the magic ID papers or the Guinness Book of World Records.
