Just before 3 p.m. On Friday, October 19, a bomb exploded near Sassine Square in the heart of Beirut’s Ashrafieh district, tearing apart a residential neighborhood and the lives, homes and businesses of hundreds of people who had simply been going about their normal day. Later it emerged that among the dead was Brigadier General Wissam al-Hassan, and the pall of political assassination fell over this horrific event. On Sunday, after incendiary, partisan speeches at Hassan’s funeral ceremony in Downtown Beirut, security forces fended off a group of angry protesters who attempted to storm the Grand Serail government building.
