Bombing overshadows Easter in Beirut

Lebanese security forces picked through rubble and twisted metal left by Saturday's blast, the third in eight days in the Christian heartland, where resentment against Syria runs high.

Patriarch Nasrallah Butrous Sfeir, spiritual leader of Lebanon's Maronite Christians and a long-time critic of Syria's grip on Lebanon, told worshippers at Easter mass the Lebanese must now choose between freedom and violence.

"The holiday this year does not give the faithful worldly cheer," he said. "The incidents ... put (people) at a crossroads: either independence, sovereignty and freedom -- and that is what most Lebanese want -- or turmoil and difficulties."

The blast wounded eight people, security sources said, most of them migrant workers from south Asia.

They said 25 kg (55 pounds) of high explosive had been planted between a Buick car and a car repair shop and exploded in the Sad al-Boushrieh industrial zone.

Anti-Syrian opposition figures blamed the Lebanese security agencies backed by Damascus for the blast, which jogged memories of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. They said the attacks would not deter their campaign against Syria.

Saturday, Lebanon's opposition, which blames Syria and its allies for the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri on Feb. 14, urged the country's security chiefs to resign to make way for an international probe into the death.

A UN fact-finding report said Lebanon's own inquiry was seriously flawed and called for an international investigation.

Lebanon's pro-Syrian authorities have criticised the report but accepted an international probe.

"These criminal acts will not make the Lebanese reverse their march to sovereignty, independence and freedom," said prominent opposition lawmaker Nasib Lahoud.

"This crime is trying to force the Lebanese to choose between freedom and security."

By Sunday morning, strands of black smoke were still escaping from windows and water was trickling down walls. Firefighters had worked all night to extinguish blazes in four buildings.

The killing of Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, has cast Lebanon into its biggest political crisis since the end of the civil war.

The opposition seized on mass street protests to force the pro-Syrian government to resign last month and Damascus to bow to international pressure to withdraw its forces after 30 years.