WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (AFP) - The United States on Friday strongly condemned a car bombing that wounded a Lebanese minister who recently resigned in a dispute over Syria's domination of the country, calling it a "vicious terrorist attack."
"We strongly condemn the bombing attack this morning in Beirut against the former minister of economy and trade, Marwan Hamadeh," deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
"We extend our sympathies to the victims of this vicious terrorist attack and we wish Mr. Hamadeh a speedy and full recovery," he told reporters, noting that the US ambassador to Lebanon, Jeffrey Feltman had visited Hamadeh in the hospital where he is recovering from his injuries.
"We call on the Lebanese authorities to fully investigate this attack and to bring the perpetrators and their backers to justice quickly," Ereli said.
Hamadeh's bodyguard was killed and his driver wounded in the blast near his home shortly before UN chief Kofi Annan accused Syria and its allies in Lebanon of failing to abide by UN Security Council demands for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
The bombing was described by many as an attack on Lebanon's democracy and observers noted that Hamadeh has been one of the most vocal opponents of continued Syrian political and security interference in Lebanon.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud ordered "police and judicial authorities to uncover the (truth) behind this act ... which aimed at creating national discord," a statement said.
Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, who has close ties with Hamadeh, also ordered "security officials ... to promptly uncover those behind this odious crime that targets all honorable men".
Hamadeh, whose mother in French, is one of four ministers who quit on September 6 to protest a controversial Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment that kept Lahoud, a Damascus protege, as head of state for another three years.
That move came only a day after the UN Security Council made its latest demands in Resolution 1559 which was adopted by the bare minimum vote on September 2.
On Wednesday, Syria wrapped up a limited troop pullout of about 3,000 soldiers, leaving about 15,000 troops on Lebanese soil, down from a peak of between 35,000 and 40,000 during the Lebanese civil war.
The US reaction to Friday's attack stood in marked contrast to the reaction it evinced earlier this week about a car bomb attack in Damascus, widely believed to have been carried out by Israel, that killed a founder of the radical Islamist Hamas movement.
On Monday, a day after that attack, Ereli refused to comment on or condemn the bombing that killed Ezzeddin Sheikh Khalil, allowing that the incident had been "violent" but refusing to take a position on the slaying.
Instead, he reiterated its demands for Syria to crack down on extremists such as members of Hamas, which the State Department identifies as a "foreign terrorist organization."
Asked about the different responses, Ereli said the United States judged incidents, such as car bombings, on the facts of individual cases.
"This is an attack on a member of the government of Lebanon and we believe that, as a member of the government of Lebanon, as a dedicated public servant, as a man who has no alleged connections with terrorist activity, that that's a qualitatively different situation," he said.
Hamadeh "is a former minister of a sovereign government and that's a very different thing than someone who is alleged to be a member of a terrorist organization," Ereli said.