A top Lebanese security official closely allied to Sunni leader Saad Hariri was killed in a massive car bombing in a densely populated neighborhood of Beirut on Friday, bringing the violence threatening to engulf the region to the heart of Lebanon’s capital after years of relative calm.
Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, who headed the Intelligence and Information Department of the Internal Security Forces, was among at least eight people killed in the mid-afternoon car bombing in a quiet side street near Sassine Square, in the city’s mostly Christian Ashrafiyeh area. . .