Lebanese mourn assassinated ex-PM Hariri a decade later

Beirut — Lebanese paid their respects Saturday to the late former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, a decade after his assassination in a massive and shocking suicide bombing that destabilised the fragile country.

In downtown Beirut, political leaders and ordinary citizens gathered to lay flowers at Hariri's grave, and several television stations carried rolling coverage of events commemorating his death.

Hariri's son Saad, himself a former premier, returned from his self-imposed exile for the occasion and was due to speak later at a memorial service in the capital.

Hariri was killed by car bomb blast on February 14, 2005, in Beirut's seaside Ain Al Mreisse district.

The attack, which also killed 22 other people, shook Lebanon and the wider region.

It prompted massive anger at neighbouring Syria, which had long been the power-broker in the country, with many accusing Damascus of involvement.

The resulting outrage prompted Syria to pull its forces out of Lebanon, ending a 30-year presence that began during the 1975-1990 civil war.

But the initial optimism that surrounded Syria's departure dwindled in the face of renewed bomb attacks against anti-Syrian politicians, public figures and those investigating Hariri's murder.

In a first for Lebanon, where political killings have tended to go uninvestigated or punished, an international tribunal is prosecuting five men accused of Hariri's murder.

But the men belong to Lebanon's powerful Shiite movement Hizbollah, a key Syrian ally, which has refused to hand them over for trial.

Lebanon's existing political and sectarian fault lines have also been exacerbated by the conflict that began in Syria in March 2011.

Hizbollah and its allies back the Syrian government, while many Lebanese Sunnis support the Syrian uprising.

The disagreement has caused a stalemate in parliament, which has failed repeatedly to elect a new president since Michel Sleiman's mandate expired last May.

Syria's conflict has also spilled over in the form of bomb attacks and border incursions by jihadist groups, as well as the influx of 1.1 million refugees.

In a statement marking the anniversary of Hariri's murder, US Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged Lebanon's fragile situation, and urged the election of a new president.

"It's fair to say that the status quo is not the Lebanon that prime minister Hariri envisioned," he said.

"Unless and until a president is chosen, the erosion of Lebanon's political institutions will only become more pronounced."