DAMASCUS, Syria — The U.S. ambassador to Syria was called back to Washington on Tuesday as anger swelled against Damascus after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
In Beirut, where Hariri was killed by a massive car bomb Monday, livid mourners spilled into the tense streets, cursing Syria while Koranic verse filled the air.
Mobs attacked Syrian laborers in southern Lebanon and burned tires outside a Syrian government building in Beirut. The Lebanese army went on alert, and flatbed trucks loaded with soldiers appeared on street corners throughout Beirut.
It is unclear who engineered the attack that killed Hariri and at least nine others, but his death has pitched Syria deeper into isolation and vulnerability. Suspicions have landed squarely on this country, which may pay a diplomatic and political price for the billionaire construction magnate's death.
Hariri, a relative moderate, quit as prime minister in October in protest of Syria's tampering in Lebanese affairs.
Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustafa, denied that his country was involved. "Syria has nothing to benefit from what has happened," he said in an interview on CNN.
But the assassination is expected to harden international resolve to force Syrian troops out of Lebanon and to strip Syria of support from nations that have been known to defend it, including France and Jordan.
Damascus has for months ignored a United Nations Security Council mandate to withdraw its forces from neighboring Lebanon.
Syrian officials have said that the smaller, weaker country, whose current president and many other leaders are staunch allies, depends on Syrian soldiers and intelligence agents to keep the peace among Lebanese factions.
The bombing shattered the logic of that argument. With or without Syrian involvement, someone managed to kill one of the nation's most celebrated politicians with about 650 pounds of explosives in broad daylight in the bustling city center.
"Yesterday's bombing calls into question the stated reason behind this presence of Syrian security forces: Lebanon's internal security," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at a Washington news conference announcing the recall of Ambassador Margaret Scobey. "The Lebanese people must be free to express their political preferences and choose their own representatives without intimidation and the threat of violence."
