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- WORLD, Page 63World NotesLEBANONA Peacemaker Is Slain
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- The motorcade was snaking its way through lunch-hour traffic
- in a residential quarter of West Beirut when a parked car loaded
- with 330 lbs. of TNT erupted in a shattering explosion. Rescuers
- dashed through the flames to the black Cadillac at the center of
- the motorcade, but it was too late. "Our beloved Mufti is
- murdered!" screamed a policeman. The explosion also killed 21
- others and injured 75 bystanders.
-
- Thus ended the life of Sheik Hassan Khaled, the revered Grand
- Mufti of Lebanon's 900,000 Sunni Muslims. Sheik Khaled had devoted
- most of his 68 years to seeking an accommodation between his
- country's perennially fractious Muslim and Christian populations.
-
- Responsibility for the bombing remained uncertain. The Syrians,
- who control West Beirut, blamed Lebanon's Christians; the
- Christians accused the Syrians. But fittingly, the death of the
- peace-loving cleric inspired a rare display of unity: Christians
- and Muslims joined in a one-day nationwide strike to mourn his
- loss.