Thousands attend al-Qaeda man's funeral

[dArKeR]

Majdal Anjar - More than 10 000 people on Wednesday attended the funeral of a suspected al-Qaeda leader whose death in custody earlier this week had caused riots and demands for the interior minister to resign.

At the funeral of Lebanese Ismail Mohammed al-Khatib, held at the mosque in his hometown, speakers denied that Khatib had any connection with al-Qaeda and again called for Interior Minister Michel Murr to step down.

Khatib's brother Mohammed slammed the government for "publicly labelling him with the accusation of terrorism and of belonging to al-Qaeda, of which he is innocent, even before the investigation was opened."

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1096478821774L155