Rmeish, South Lebanon 1. Wide of village residents gathering in front of home of assassinated Lebanese Army General, Brigadier General Francois Hajj UPSOUND: clapping and chanting 2. Various of women dress in black chanting, clapping and holding white cloth as one woman holds a picture of the assassinated General in the air, women chanting singing the praises of the dead general UPSOUND: clapping and chanting 3. Women mourners dressed in black UPSOUND: (Arabic) Violette Hajj, Brigadier General Francois Hajj's sister: "We ask for your mercy, mother Mary (referring to Mary, mother of Jesus). " 4. Pan across women mourners UPSOUND: (Arabic) Antoinette Hajj, Brigadier General Francois Hajj's sister: "We cannot imagine those beautiful eyes under earth, under the earth." 5. People gathering in front of the assassinated general's home 6. People hanging Lebanese flags 10. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Elie Nakhoul, a friend of the assassinated General: "He was one of our fiends in this town. He was my classmate. He was a decent man and he liked his town." 7. Wide of Rmeish village Rabieh, East Beirut 8. Wide of Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun heading to microphones, zoom in 9. Reporter asking question at news conference 10. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Michel Aoun, Christian opposition Leader: "We are sorry because the UN security council expected such crimes and this speculation is strange on an international level. Now these speculations are coming true, locally and internationally. Now they are using it to run away from facing up to it. There is a conspiracy between who did it and who benefited from it and they are one. We are having to deal with this matter from three years ago. That's why we now know why the Lebanese government didn't find any clues to the eighteen murders that happened in Lebanon." 11. Wide of news conference Mourners gathered in Rmeish in Southern Lebanon on Wednesday at the home of one of Lebanon's top military generals, assassinated in a car bombing earlier in the day. Brigadier General Francois Hajj, a top Maronite Catholic in the command, and at least two others were killed in the early morning car bomb attack as they drove through a Christian suburb of Beirut. It is an attack that has further destabilised a nation in a deep political crisis. He was considered a leading candidate to succeed the head of the military, General Michel Suleiman, if Suleiman is elected president. Hajj, 55, also led a major military campaign against Islamic militants over the summer. Outside his home, women dressed in black and, holding a picture of the slain general, danced in a circle, praising the slain general. "We cannot imagine those beautiful eyes under earth, under the earth," Antoinette Hajj, one of his sisters wailed. People of the village displayed Lebanese flags in a show of unity. Elie Nakhoul, a friend and former classmate of the assassinated general describe Hajj as "one of our fiends." "He was a decent man and he liked his town," he said. The blast is the first such attack against the Lebanese army, which has remained neutral in Lebanon's year-long political crisis and is widely seen as the only force that can hold the country together amid the bitter infighting between parliament's rival factions. The political divisions have paralysed the government and prevented the election of a president, leaving the post empty since November 23 in a dangerous power vacuum. Under Lebanon's sectarian division of political posts, the president must be a Maronite, like the army commander. The slaying of Hajj and its timing amid the deadlock over the presidency raised immediate speculation over who was behind the bombing, which blasted Hajj's SUV as he drove through a busy street of Baabda district. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/ec62b28ffe066c940c10baa4b865707e Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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