New tests corroborate the theory that Lebanon's ex-Premier Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive suicide truck bomb, chief U.N. investigator Serge Brammertz said in his latest report.
The report, delivered to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday, said that Syria, which had been accused of obstructing the probe, has been generally cooperative in the U.N. commission's investigation of the Feb. 14, 2005 bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others.
Investigators had suspected for some time that Hariri was killed by a bomb packed into a Mitsubishi minivan and detonated by a suicide bomber. According to the new report, new tests corroborate the assumption that a man either inside or just in front of the van detonated the bomb, which was probably close to 1,800 kilograms.
The report also said new leads had been uncovered on who carried out the attack. "The commission has identified a considerable number of new leads for investigation relating to the crime scene, its vicinity and the immediate perpetration of the crime, and has begun investigative and analytical work on each one of them," said the report, according to news agencies.
"The cooperation that the commission has received from the Syrian Arab Republic has remained generally satisfactory, and the commission continues to require its full support in providing information and facilitating interviews with individuals," the report said.
"The commission continues to conduct a number of interviews and re-interviews of representatives or former representatives of the Syrian and Lebanese government structures. This work will remain ongoing throughout the next reporting period," the report added.
The investigation has also uncovered more evidence of a link between Hariri's murder and 13 other attacks carried out in Lebanon between October 2004 and December 2005, the report said.
It said Hariri was most likely aware of a heightened threat against him in the weeks before his murder. "There is evidence to believe that Hariri was aware of a heightened threat against him... and had factored the unusually elevated threat environment into his thinking, approach, activities and movements over the last few weeks of his life," it said.
The Security Council was to hold consultations on the Hariri case Friday.
