Tens of thousands packed into a city square Wednesday to mark the second anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination as hundreds of troops were deployed a day after bus bombings killed three people. Troops in full combat gear and armored cars deployed in and around Martyrs' Square, where the country's two main rival groups were present: government supporters commemorating Hariri's death and opposition supporters continuing their daily sit-in to demand the government's resignation.
The soldiers set up a razor wire barrier to separate the two groups, and police conducted body searches of people arriving in the square.
At exactly 12:55 p.m. -- the time of the explosion that killed Hariri and 22 others -- the crowd fell silent except for a muezzin making the Islamic call to prayer and the tolling of a church bell. Standing at the speaker's podium, Hariri's son, Saad, and sister, Bahiya, prayed.
The speakers addressed the crowd from behind bulletproof glass, calling for approval of a U.N.-created tribunal to try suspects in the Hariri assassination. The tribunal's ratification has been held up by political dispute.
A respected Shiite cleric from southern Lebanon, Ali Amin, criticized the Shiite-backed opposition parties, Hezbollah and Amal, for failing to strike a deal with the government. The two parties withdrew from the Cabinet last year.
''Our fate is through agreement and the mechanism is to return to the logic of the state and institutions,'' said Amin, without naming Hezbollah and Amal. Referring to the failure to ratify the tribunal, he said ''it was strange'' to oppose justice.
Tuesday's explosions on commuter buses on a busy mountain highway northeast of Beirut stoked fears of turmoil as the country prepared to mark the 2005 assassination of Hariri, the nation's most prominent politician and the leader credited with rebuilding the country from the destruction of the 1975-90 civil war.
Lebanon has suffered a series of bombings during the past two years, mostly targeting anti-Syrian figures, but Tuesday's attacks were the first that seemed intended to cause maximum casualties among civilians of no political affiliation.
The investigations into Hariri's assassination have all pointed towards Syrian complicity. Who stands to gain the most from the assassination and ongoing violence? It isn't the Lebanese people. You've got the Syrians, Hizbullah, and Iran who all stand to gain. Aoun is looking out for himself, and the other religious and political groups are hoping they can weather the storm.
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