Another Assassination in Lebanon

It's assassination season once again in Lebanon. This time, it was one of the top generals who played an important role in going after Fatah al Islam over the past year. Guess who many are looking at being behind this latest assassination.

Syria.

A car bomb attack killed one of Lebanon's top generals and at least two other people Wednesday, the military and state media said, putting even more pressure on the country's delicate political situation.

The target of the attack, Brig. Gen. Francois Hajj, a top Maronite Catholic in the command, was considered a leading candidate to succeed the head of the military, Gen. Michel Suleiman, if Suleiman is elected president.

Hajj, 55, also led a major military campaign against Islamic militants over the summer.

The blast is the first such attack against the Lebanese army, which has remained neutral in Lebanon's yearlong political crisis and is widely seen as the only force that can hold the country together amid the bitter infighting between parliament's rival factions.

The political divisions have paralyzed the government and prevented the election of a president, leaving the post empty since Nov. 23 in a dangerous power vacuum. Under Lebanon's sectarian division of political posts, the president must be a Maronite, like the army commander.

The slaying of Hajj and its timing amid the deadlock over the presidency raised immediate speculation over who was behind the bombing, which blasted Hajj's SUV as he drove through a busy street of Baabda district.

Anti-Syrian politicians blamed Damascus, as they have for a string of bombings over the past two years that killed eight prominent opponents of Syria. Damascus has denied any role in those killings.

Of course Syria denies any role in the killings. Why would they take credit for assassinations of political leaders of the country that they really consider to be nothing more than their personal playground? Let's just ignore all the ties between the assassinations and that the victims were staunch nationalists who opposed Syrian meddling in Lebanon.

Going after the Lebanese military makes sense since they're the only countervailing force in the Lebanese polity that can potentially offset the Syrian and Hizbullah influence. If you undermine the military, you open the door to further meddling.

UPDATE:
From Beirut to Beltway has more, including this nugget:

The attack comes less than a day after the Syrian vice president boasted that "no one can win the battle against Syria in Lebanon", and exactly one year after March 14 MP Gebran Tueni's assassination.

UPDATE:
Via Gateway Pundit:

Another anti-Syrian leader is assassinated in Lebanon.

Rafik Hariri -February 14, 2005
Samir Kassir -June 2, 2005
George Hawi -June 21, 2005
May Chidiac (attempted assassination) -September 25, 2005
Gebran Ghassan Tueni -December 12, 2005
Pierre Amin Gemayel -November 21, 2006
Walid Eido -June 13, 2007
Antoine Ghanem- September 19, 2007
Francois al-Hajj -December 12, 2007

No surprise... The Lebanese Inner Circle reported that given the intensity of the explosion and sophistication of the bomb, this assassination bears Syria’s fingerprints.

The bodies keep piling up in Lebanon and the Syrians continue to meddle in Lebanon, threatening to further destabilize the country.