Lebanon Suicide Bomber Kills Self, Mule He Rode; 1 Wounded

A suicide bomber riding a mule detonated saddle baskets full of explosives Tuesday in the south Lebanon border town of Hasbayya, killing himself and the animal and wounding at least one person.

Israel’s military command said that one Lebanese civilian was wounded and that the blast shattered windows in a building used by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army. It made no mention of any Israelis being present.

The Lebanese National Resistance Front, a guerrilla alliance operating in the south, said the building was demolished with 30 Israelis and 40 militiamen inside, but it gave no specific casualty figures. It claimed the building was the headquarters of an Israeli military governor it identified as Maj. Firoy.

Lebanese police had no immediate report on casualties.

Crossing Point

Hasbayya is a predominantly Druze town in Lebanon’s lower Bekaa Valley, six miles northwest of the border. It is a crossing point into the southern Lebanon area described by Israel as its security zone and was the scene of a suicide car-bomb explosion last month in which 16 people died.

The Syrian Social National Party, a faction of the National Resistance Front, said in a statement that Tuesday’s bomber was Jamal Sati, 23, a Sunni Muslim student and local Communist Party military chief.

In another development in Lebanon on Tuesday, Muslim and Druze factions meeting in the Bekaa Valley town of Chtoura said they have formed an alliance under Syrian sponsorship to demand equal power with the Christian minority, who have traditionally dominated politics.

The National Alliance Front, which includes 15 political parties and 30 independent politicians, issued a nine-point charter for a “democratic and secular” Lebanon. It calls for sweeping constitutional, electoral and social reforms.

Prelude to Talks

The strongest forces in the Chtoura conference were Druze warload Walid Jumblatt and Shia Muslim leader Nabih Berri, head of the Amal militia. Both are Lebanese Cabinet members. The conference was seen as a prelude to talks in Damascus, the Syrian capital, aimed at ending Lebanon’s decade-long factional fighting.

The development of the alliance further isolates President Amin Gemayel, a Maronite Christian already under pressure from rival Christians.