Ex-President Escapes Car Bomb in Beirut

BEIRUT — Former President Camille Chamoun, one of Lebanon’s most prominent senior Christian leaders, survived an assassination attempt Wednesday in which three of his bodyguards and three other people were killed and 40 wounded when a car bomb blew up as his motorcade drove by.

The 86-year-old Chamoun, who currently serves as the country’s finance minister, was on his way by security convoy to a meeting of the Lebanese Front, a coalition of Christian parties, when a car rigged with an estimated 150 pounds of explosives was set off by remote control near the foot of the hilltop Christian quarter of Ashrafiyeh in East Beirut.

The car carrying Chamoun’s bodyguards burst into flames. The burned bodies of three of the bodyguards were recovered by rescue workers. The explosion badly damaged seven buildings, destroyed 25 cars and left a huge crater in the street.

Minor Injuries

Chamoun’s bulletproof limousine was blown off the road, but he suffered only minor injuries to his right arm and departed the Hotel Dieu hospital two hours after arriving there for treatment, limping slightly but alert and calm.

At his home later, Chamoun told a reporter that his blood pressure was good “in spite of the criminals who tried to murder me and those innocent people. God is watching over us, and (so is) the Blessed Virgin, whose icon I always wear on my chest.”

Chamoun, who has encouraged resistance to Syrian involvement in Lebanon, has survived at least three previous assassination attempts--in 1968, 1980 and in November, 1985. He described Wednesday’s attack as an “act of terrorism” and did not rule out suggestions that it might have been linked to a planned Syrian-Lebanese summit meeting.

Meeting Endorsed

On Tuesday, Chamoun endorsed a proposed meeting between Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, a Christian, and Syrian President Hafez Assad, provided it did not infringe on Lebanese sovereignty. Syria recently agreed in principle to ending its isolation of Gemayel after a one-year estrangement during which it encouraged Muslim opposition ministers to boycott his national unity Cabinet.

Hospital callers included a wide range of Lebanese politicians, among them Gemayel, who insisted on personally driving Chamoun home. Parliament Speaker Hussein Husseini, a Shia Muslim; Premier Rashid Karami and Education Minister Salim Hoss, both Sunni Muslims, and Druze chief Walid Jumblatt called to condemn the attack and to wish Chamoun well.

Outside the hospital, people applauded when the elderly politician was spotted leaving with one of his surviving bodyguards.

Accused of Complicity

Syria has accused Gemayel and Christian hawks around him, such as Chamoun, of complicity in scuttling a Syrian-crafted militia accord last year that would have curbed Christian power and given Syria a free hand in controlling military and political affairs in Lebanon.

Chamoun also was the first advocate of a Christian-Israeli link to counter Islamic dominance and demands on the small Lebanese state, the only one in the Arab world with a Christian president.

He was president from 1952 to 1958. In 1958, he asked President Dwight D. Eisenhower for a 5,000-man Marine contingent to quell an uprising by Muslim and nationalist insurgents opposed to his pro-Western policies. The U.S. Marines landed on Lebanon’s shores on July 15 and remained in the country for six months.