Lebanon's ex-PM killed by truck bomb: panel

The chief of the international probeteam for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafikal-Hariri has confirmed Friday that a truck bomb explosion killed Hariri.

   "The explosion was beyond any reasonable doubt above ground,"the team chief Detlev Mehlis told a news conference in Beirut. 

  "There was no indication of an underground explosion," addedMehlis, who showed the reporters a picture of the truck, a white Mitsubishi.

   Mehlis said he was not sure if the truck was stationary ormoving when it blew up and called on anyone with information aboutthe crime to come forward.

   Following a unanimous UN Security Council vote on the authorization of Hariri's assassination, Mehlis and his team arrived in Beirut in late May to begin their probe. His team has atleast three months to continue the investigation.   Hariri, a prominent anti-Syrian political figure and billionaire, was killed along with another 19 people in the bombblast on Feb. 14, which directly led to the end of almost three decade Syrian military presence in Lebanon and the ongoing Lebanese parliamentary elections. 

Source: Xinhua