Murder in Beirut

By Christopher on May 1, 2007 12:18 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

BEIRUT -- On Friday, a double murder shocked Lebanon and made a tense situation even more taut. Here's the story I filed for the San Francisco Chronicle:

The second anniversary of Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon in the face of huge popular protests after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri ended in two gruesome killings Thursday.

The bodies of Ziad Qabalan, 25, and Ziad Ghandour, 12, two Sunnis with ties to the Progressive Socialist Party, a political party led by anti-Syrian Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, were found by police in the southern coastal village of Jadra three days after they were kidnapped off a Beirut street. The bodies reportedly showed signs of torture.

Since then, we've had condolences upon condolences, but no fighting, thankfully. This might be the one opportunity for Lebanese squabbling warlords cum politicians to step back from the brink. No one wants to see more dead 12-year-olds, I don't believe.

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About me


Hi there! Thanks for stopping in. I'm Christopher Allbritton, former AP and New York Daily News reporter. In 2002, I went stumbling around Iraqi Kurdistan, the northern part of Iraq outside Saddam's direct control, looking for stories. (Some might call it "looking for trouble.") In March 2003, I made it back in time for the war, becoming the Web's first fully reader-funded journalist-blogger. With the support of thousands of readers, we raised almost $15,000. You can read my dispatches here. It was one of the moments in journalism when everything worked. It was a grand -- and successful -- experiment in independent journalism. In 2004, I moved to Iraq, where I would spend the next two years. It was a raucous, scary and exciting place with a lot of news going on. But I've since moved on to Beirut and the wider region. I now report for a variety of outlets.

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This page contains a single entry by Christopher published on May 1, 2007 12:18 PM.

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