13 December 2005

BEIRUT: A number of car bombs and political assassinations preceded the violent events witnessed in Lebanon over the past months.

Feb. 1975 - Sunni Muslim leftist politician Maarouf Saad is shot dead during a demonstration in Sidon. His death helped trigger Lebanon's civil war in April of that year.

March 1977 - Druze and leftist leader Kamal Jumblatt is killed in an ambush in his Chouf mountain fiefdom.

June 1978 - Tony Franjieh, son of former President Suleiman Franjieh, is killed by Christian militia rivals at his home in Ehden, north Lebanon.

Sept. 1982 - Bashir Gemayel, elected president, is killed before taking office by a bomb planted by a pro-Syrian Christian. His brother Amin becomes president.

June 1987 - Lebanon's veteran Prime Minister Rashid Karami is killed by a bomb in an army helicopter in Tripoli.

May 1989 - Mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled, religious head of Lebanon's Sunni community, is killed by a car bomb in Beirut.

Nov. 1989 - President Rene Mouawad is killed in a huge bomb explosion in Beirut. Mouawad, a Syrian-backed Maronite Christian, had been elected less than three weeks earlier.

Oct. 1990 - Gunmen kill Dany Chamoun, chairman of the National Liberal Party and former Christian militia leader, in Christian suburb of Beirut.

Feb. 1992 - Israelis kill Abbas Mussawi, leader of the Hizbullah resistance movement, in a helicopter ambush of his convoy near the village of Jibsheet in South Lebanon.

Jan. 2002 - Elie Hobeika, former minister and leader of pro-Israeli Christian militia involved in the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, is killed in Beirut.

May 2002 - Mohammad Jihad Ahmed Jibril, son of Ahmed Jibril, leader of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General-Command (PFLP-GC), is killed in a car bomb in Beirut.

Oct. 2004 - Assassination attempt on Telecommunication Minister Marwan Hamade

Feb. 2005 - Huge car bomb kills Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Beirut's waterfront.

Feb. 16 - At least 150,000 Lebanese turn Hariri's funeral into outpouring of anger against Syria.

Feb. 28 - Pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami resigns.

March 5 - President Bashar Assad tells Syrian Parliament his troops will start phased pullout from Lebanon.

March 8 - Lebanese hold big pro-Syrian rally organized by Hizbullah. Syrian troops begin redeploying.

March 14 - Anti-Syrian protesters stage huge rally.

April 26 - Last Syrian soldiers leave Lebanon.

June 2 - Samir Kassir, journalist opposed to Syria's role in Lebanon, is killed in Beirut by bomb planted under his car.

June 16 - UN probe into Hariri's killing starts work.

June 21 - Former Communist Party leader and critic of Syria George Hawi is killed in Beirut by a bomb planted in his car.

July 12 - Car bomb wounds caretaker Defence Minister Elias Murr and kills one person in Christian area north of Beirut.

Aug. 30 - Four pro-Syrian former security chiefs are detained as suspects in Hariri's killing and later charged with murder.

Sept. 20 - UN investigators go to Damascus to interview Syrian officials, including Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan.

Sept. 25 - May Chidiac, a Christian television journalist critical of Syria, is seriously wounded by bomb in her car.

Oct. 12 - Syrian state news agency SANA announces that Kanaan has committed suicide in his office in Damascus.

Oct. 20 - UN investigators say high-ranking Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies were involved in Hariri's killing, in report to UN Security Council.

Nov. 10 - Syrian President Assad launches a scathing attack against Lebanon's leaders, accusing them of turning their country into a hotbed of conspiracy against Damascus.

Dec. 7 - UN investigators complete their questioning of five Syrian officials in Vienna in connection with Hariri's killing.

Dec. 11 - The chief investigator into Hariri's assassination hands over his latest report to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, saying Syria must detain those the commission considers as suspects in Hariri's murder.

Dec. 12 - Gibran Tueni, staunchly anti-Syrian MP and Lebanese newspaper magnate, is killed by a bomb in Beirut. Three other people died and 10 were wounded.