Lebanon mourns assassinated intelligence officer

By Yara Bayoumy

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's police chief vowed to confront those who "terrorise this nation" on Saturday, at a memorial service for a police intelligence officer killed in a car bomb attack the previous day.

Captain Wisam Eid, who helped investigate assassinations in the country, and his companion were killed when a car bomb ripped through a Christian suburb of Beirut on Friday.

Police said on Saturday the death toll in the attack rose to five from four and put the wounded at 42.

Eid's assassination was the latest in a wave of bombings and political killings that have shaken Lebanon over the past three years and whose turmoil has fuelled the country's worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

"They thought that with their crime, they can affect our commitment and will, but they are really delusional," said police chief Brigadier General Ashraf Rifi at a memorial service at the internal security forces' headquarters in Beirut.

"Today we bid farewell and we pledge to you that the internal security forces will continue to confront those who wanted to terrorise this nation with their crimes," Rifi said.

Eid, 31, who was posthumously promoted to major, worked for an intelligence unit which was seen as close to anti-Syrian ruling majority leader Saad al-Hariri and which was frequently criticised by the Syrian-backed opposition.

He was a communications engineer who security sources said was responsible for tracking mobile phone communications made by attackers in previous killings and of Islamist militant cells.