A bloodstained memorial

As bombs aimed at civilians shook Lebanon this week government supporters turned out in force to remember Rafik Al-Hariri, reports Lucy Fielder from Beirut

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Fear of clashes between supporters and opponents of the government grew as the second anniversary of Rafik Al-Hariri's assassination drew near. But none of the passengers on the two buses that blew up on Tuesday morning would have expected bombs on the eve of the memorial, on the mountain road to Beirut, in the driving rain.

"Before politicians were targeted, now it's everyone," whispered Marie-Thérèse Saliba as she waited at a hospital north of Beirut for news of her friend's mother who lost her leg in one of the two bus bombs. Three people were killed and at least 20 more wounded.

While Lebanon has been periodically shaken by bombings for two years now they have generally targetted anti-Syrian journalists and politicians, most recently Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, who hailed from nearby Bikfaya, in November. Tuesday morning's attacks, though, which occurred at 9.30 am, the rush hour, were planned to inflict the maximum number of casualties among civilians.

Security forces and troops cordoned off the area where the skeleton of a white bus stood with its roof ripped open. Pools of blood lay on the road. Thirty metres behind was the mangled wreckage of the second bus. The two explosions were 10 minutes apart.

Undeterred and defiant, tens of thousands of government supporters poured into Martyrs Square on Wednesday to commemorate Hariri's death, along with 22 other people, in February 2005.

Lebanese flags, as well as those of the governing coalition parties, fluttered as blue and white balloons bearing Hariri's picture bobbed overhead. Demonstrators climbed nearby cranes, stood on the roof of the vast mosque commissioned by Hariri that overlooks the square and sat atop lamp posts.

It was clearly a political rally as much as a memorial. "We've come here to tell the world we are not with Hizbullah or Iran or Syria," said Taghrid Al-Unaisi from the eastern Chouf region. "After the bombs, which were supposed to scare us off, we were even more determined to come."

"Hizbullah is an Iranian seed planted in Lebanese soil and watered by Syria. No to a Hizbullah state, yes to a Lebanon open to the world," read one demonstrator's placard.

Saad Al-Hariri, head of the parliamentary majority, blamed Syria for the most recent bombings as well as the one that killed his father. Their aim, he said, was to frighten people away from commemorating his father's death.

Prime Minister Fouad Al-Seniora promised to pursue the "sinners who assassinated Hariri and his companions, and continued this criminal scenario... with the crime perpetrated today".

"We will not give up our determination to reach justice. We are determined to uncover the killers and deter the criminals." The government and United Nations have approved plans for a tribunal into Hariri's killing, but the president has yet to approve them and parliament needs to ratify them when it convenes in March.

Hundreds of troops blocked access to the opposition protest camp in the upper half of the square which was divided by barbed wire into two. There had been widespread fears of clashes and local television footage reported that the opposition had banned gatherings in areas around the encampment to avoid friction with government supporters. Inside the tents people read the Qur'an's fatiha in Hariri's memory.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah wrote an open letter in As-Safir newspaper on 14 February. "Yes, we all lost him -- those who allied with him, because with his departure they lost a strong ally, and those who differed with him, because with his departure they lost a wise and patient negotiator, whose heart was big enough even for those who strongly opposed him," he wrote.

Nazik Al-Hariri, the widow of the Lebanese figurehead whose relationship with Nasrallah had warmed in his later years, wrote an open letter to the Hizbullah leader at the weekend. In a conciliatory, even affectionate tone, Hariri paid tribute to Nasrallah's resistance against Israel and called him "the father of the martyr Hadi", a reference to Nasrallah's eldest son Hadi, killed in 1997 during Hizbullah's battle to drive Israeli troops from the south.

"I have a favour to ask you, who would always answer with loyalty, to make the second anniversary of his martyrdom an occasion that unites and does not divide, and that his grave be surrounded only by those who want to ask for God's mercy or recite the fatiha of the Lord of the two worlds," she wrote.

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment's Middle East centre in Beirut, said that the conciliatory tone of political speeches at the rally pointed towards an agreement between leaders as reported by Al-Akhbar earlier in the week.

The compromise agreement leaked by the paper gave the opposition 11 cabinet seats to the government's 19 -- a veto-wielding third was a key opposition demand -- called for early parliamentary elections and a compromise presidential candidate. A committee would make amendments to the tribunal plans to suit all sides. Crucially, the issue of the resistance would be resolved internally, with the right to resist Israel enshrined in a cabinet statement.

"I think there's a lot of credibility to reports that there was a breakthrough, presumably supported by the US since I don't think Saudi would act on its own," said Saad-Ghorayeb. "We know that Moussa's agreement was based on those four or five items, otherwise Al-Akhbar 's draft would have been refuted."

Pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud said the attacks were to thwart intensified efforts to resolve the stand- off between the government and opposition, which has cleaved the country in half.

"Every time the possibility of a practical solution looms on the horizon... the enemies of Lebanon rush to commit a new crime against innocents," Lahoud said in a statement.

In an editorial in Al-Akhbar newspaper, commentator Khalid Saghiyyeh wrote that the time had come for Lebanon's leaders to announce the Lebanese war -- part two. "The international situation is favourable and approving. Most of the leaders of the Lebanese war, part one, are still present and in good health, and have increased their domination, presence and riches. The popular situation is enjoying an above normal degree of tension. And with great respect to the civil society groups that are working against the war, their portrayal of a silent majority is a lie. The majority, unfortunately, is not silent but loudly giving free rein to sectarian arrogance..." (see p.5)