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- WORLD, Page 63World NotesLEBANONA Peacemaker Is Slain
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- The motorcade was snaking its way through lunch-hour
- traffic in a residential quarter of West Beirut when a parked
- car loaded with 330 lbs. of TNT erupted in a shattering
- explosion. Rescuers dashed through the flames to the black
- Cadillac at the center of the motorcade, but it was too late.
- "Our beloved Mufti is murdered!" screamed a policeman. The
- explosion also killed 21 others and injured 75 bystanders.
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- Thus ended the life of Sheik Hassan Khaled, the revered
- Grand Mufti of Lebanon's 900,000 Sunni Muslims. Sheik Khaled had
- devoted most of his 68 years to seeking an accommodation between
- his country's perennially fractious Muslim and Christian
- populations.
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- Responsibility for the bombing remained uncertain. The
- Syrians, who control West Beirut, blamed Lebanon's Christians;
- the Christians accused the Syrians. But fittingly, the death of
- the peace-loving cleric inspired a rare display of unity:
- Christians and Muslims joined in a one-day nationwide strike to
- mourn his loss.
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