Hit list of Lebanese

Damascus, Syria

Syria still has intelligence agents in Lebanon and may be targeting people for assassination, the Bush administration charged this week. “There are reports that we have been hearing about for some time about Syrian hit lists, targeting key Lebanese public figures,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. In April, under U.S. and U.N. pressure, Syria withdrew the last of the 15,000 troops it had stationed in Lebanon since 1976, and it was supposed to have withdrawn the secret police as well. But Lebanese opposition leaders say some Syrian agents remain. Damascus denied the reports, calling them “as credible as the story of Iraq’s WMDs.” A leading anti-Syrian politician, Rafik Hariri, was assassinated in February. Earlier this month, anti-Syrian journalist, Samir Kassir, was also murdered.