US FBI team arrives to help Lebanon probe blast

A U.S. investigation team arrived in Beirut on Thursday and began gathering evidence at the scene of a bombing that killed the country's police intelligence chief, the Lebanese interior minister said. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation team is at the scene of the crime and has begun collecting evidence," Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told AFP. "The team was sent to Lebanon at the request of the Lebanese government," he added. The United States announced on Monday it would send an FBI team to help Lebanon probe the rush-hour Beirut car bombing that killed police intelligence chief General Wissam al-Hassan and three others. Washington has condemned the blast as a terrorist strike but said it would wait for the results of the investigation before determining any further response. The opposition has widely blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for Friday's attack, as it did in 2005 when former premier Rafiq Hariri was killed in a huge Beirut blast.