Unknown assailants fired two rockets from a parked car on Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's Future TV building early yesterday, causing extensive damage to one of the news studios, the station and the information minister said. There were no casualties.
The attack on the building, which also houses the premises of Hariri's Orient Radio station, took place at 1:30am in an upscale, beach-side west Beirut neighborhood, the station said.
Hariri inspected the wrecked studio in the morning but made no comments.
The rockets were fired from a white BMW with a forged license plate parked across from the TV building. The rockets started a fire that gutted one of the news rooms. A station worker managed to carry four large gas cylinders in the studio's kitchen away from the flames, the station said.
As an investigation was continuing and debris removed, Future TV was broadcasting as normal on both its satellite and earth channels yesterday.
Inspecting the site, Information Minister Michel Samaha condemned the attack saying "it reminded us of past tragedies." Lebanon's news media outlets, considered the liveliest and freest in the Arab world, were the targets of frequent attacks during the 1975-90 civil war.
"This act is not a message directed against Future TV alone. It aims at undermining security and stability not only in Beirut but the whole country," Samaha said.
There are eight TV stations in Lebanon.
The rocket attack on Future TV came a few hours after Hariri returned from a 10-day trip to Brazil and France. The Cabinet, which has not held its regular weekly meeting in three weeks, has scheduled an extraordinary session on Tuesday to act on dozens of issues on its agenda,including the appointment of a delegate to World Bank meetings and privatization of cell phone companies.
Tuesday's session, to be presided over by President Emile Lahoud, had been billed a reflection of reconciliation between Hariri and Lahoud, whose relations had soured over some of the issues on the agenda.
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