UN to help Lebanon probe latest political murder

UNITED NATIONS, June 18 (Reuters) The UN Security Council approved Lebanon's request for United Nations help in investigating the murder of an anti-Syrian legislator, killed in a bomb blast last week, according to a letter published today.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora last week requested Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to agree to ''technical assistance'' from the UN-established International Independent Investigation Commission in the assassination of Walid Eido.

A parked sports utility vehicle packed with explosives blew up last Wednesday as Eido's car left a Beirut beach club. One of his sons and two bodyguards were among the dead and at least 11 people were wounded.

In response, Belgium's UN Ambassador Johan Verbeke, this month's council president, said the 15-member body approved Siniora's request. The commission was originally set up to investigate the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, killed with 22 others in Beirut on February 14, 2005.

Verbeke wrote that the council was ''determined to continue to assist the government of Lebanon in the search for the truth and to bring to justice perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of that terrorist attack and of other terrorist attacks and assassinations committed in Lebanon since October 2004.'' Eido is among a series anti-Syrian figures killed before and since the the Hariri assassination, including Pierre Gemayel, a Lebanese cabinet member. Many Lebanese have accused Syria of involvement in the slayings, a claim Damascus denies. The UN Commission is involved in 16 investigations.

The killing of Eido occurred three days after a Security Council resolution came into effect on creating an international tribunal to try suspects in Hariri's murder. The court is opposed by Syria and its Lebanese allies.

A team of UN experts to aid the commission was expected in Beirut shortly, headed by Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz.

The blast, near a seafront amusement park, destroyed several cars and shattered windows of nearby buildings. It hurled the bodies of Eido and his son over a wall and into the football ground, also killing two players.

Reuters SG DB2339