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A high-ranking Hezbollah militant linked to the 1983 truck bombings at
the U.S. and French embassies in Kuwait was among four people indicted
Thursday by an international tribunal in the assassination of Lebanon's
former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The implication of Hezbollah, the dominant player in Lebanon's new
government, threatens to plunge this Arab nation on Israel's northern
border into a new and violent crisis. The Shiite militant group denies
any role in the killing and vows never to turn over any of its members.

The case has further polarized Lebanon's rival factions — Hezbollah with
its patrons in Syria and Iran on one side, and a Western-backed bloc
led by Hariri's son, Saad, on the other.

The suicide truck bomb that killed Rafik Hariri and 22 others on Feb.
14, 2005, was one of the most dramatic political assassinations in the
Middle East. A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon's most
prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

In the six years since his death, the investigation has sharpened some
of Lebanon's most intractable issues: the role of Hezbollah, the
country's most powerful political and military force, and the country's
dark history of sectarian divisions and violence.

Rafik Hariri was one of Lebanon's most powerful Sunni leaders; Hezbollah is a Shiite group.

The U.N.-backed tribu... >>>