I have already discussed thoroughly the ongoing trade embargo that Syria is imposing on Lebanon. By closing off the border, Syria is effectively shutting out Lebanon’s only means by which to transport their goods to the rest of the Arab world. This in the middle of an enormous fiscal crisis worth upwords of $30 billion. Effectively, Syria is waging a trade war against Lebanon to throw it into crisis while saying that the Lebanese “can’t govern themselves.”

One of Syria’s other tactics at sowing discord has been the targeted assassination of politicians in Lebanon. Today, another bomb went off in Beirut, but there was something different about this one. It wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular. Instead, it was planted on a busy nightlife street. A reporter from Ya Libnan was at the scene and took photos.

Beirut, Lebanon – The never ending series of car bombings hit Monot street on Friday night, Beirut’s chic nightlife district. The bombing marks a first for Monot Street, located in Achrafieh, the place where Samir Kassir was assassinated by a car bomb two months earlier.

An Opel car exploded in a parking lot off the main street. According to the director general of internal security, General Ashraf Rifi, the bomb was placed underneath a parked car, and so far one person was reportedly killed in the explosion.

The explosion took place just before 10pm, just as the busy Friday party goers started to fill the many pubs, clubs and bars.

A Ya Libnan correspondent on the scene reports that the explosion took place near Ginger restaurant, which is close to the famous Crystal nightclub. Ambulance, police and the fire brigade rushed to the scene, and the injury count is up to 7.

The explosion came just hours after US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s surprise visit to Beirut.

The most oft cited bombs are those that targeted politicians, but in fact the majority have been aimed at commercial centers such as resort venues and shopping malls. Syria isn’t trying to kill as many people as possible, it’s trying to kill the tourism industry along with Lebanon’s trade. Here’s what I wrote back in April:

Syria has an estimated $1 billion stake to be lost with its removal from Lebanon. The first bomb that murdered Hariri was set off in downtown Beirut. Now many restaurants have had to slash prices just to seat a few tables. The first bombing was in a residential/commercial area, the third in an industrial complex, and the second and fourth in shopping malls. The recent explosions have also occured primarily at night, so that while not many people are injured, the bombs are big enough to scare the pants off people.

So what does this all mean? The malls that were targetted are prime destinations for foreigners and locals alike to go shopping. Locals will be scared to go to places hit, and foreigners will be scared to go to the country at all.

Lebanese bloggers are all reporting the devastating effects this could have. And it all comes down to the economy. Lebanon.Profile from the Lebanese Political Journal was at the scene when it happened, so he has a first hand account. At the end of the post, he makes this observation:

The tourists I met in the downtown were all scared. This seems like the kind of action someone would take if they simply wanted to hurt the Lebanese economy. I can name a certain government that is intentionally trying to hurt our economy right now, but there is no direct evidence to lay any blame.

Mustapha of the Beirut Spring is even more detailed:

Forget the beaches; forget the food, the mountains or the shops. The real reason why Saudi, Bahraini, Kuwaiti, Omani youngsters come to Lebanon is to party hard in Mono Street, the very place that was hit by a bomb on a Friday night in the beginning of summer.

Monot Street has the appealing combination of a Paris Left bank walkway and a big city clubbing neighborhood. You are more likely to hear people speak in French than in Arabic in this French-named place, and there are no signboards whatsoever written in Arabic. The most common sentence I????????ve heard from non-Lebanese Arab friends who go to Monot is this: ???????I????????ve never seen so many pretty girls at the same place like that???????. Perhaps this is why Arab tourists dig it, or perhaps it????????s because they like to pay $500 for a bottle of Champaign.

Western tourists on the other hand don????????t like Monot; one of them once told me that the ???????Lebanese Try too hard to be European???????. She said that she prefers Damascus because it????????s more ???????authentic???????.

Speaking of Damascus, who was behind that bomb?

Nobody knows, but it seems conveniently consistent with a certain country????????s attempt to stifle our economy by first targeting our trucks and now our tourists. But hey, the Lebanese can always teach their Arab brethrens to Dance their problems away.

Assad has come under the scorn of Condoleezza Rice during her surprise visit to Beirut, and it doesn’t stop there. The regime and its carnival folk are the laughing stock of all Middle Eastern dictatorships; never before has it been in a weaker position. That’s the bottom of the barrel right there. The international community is stronger than steel on seeing Lebanon succeed and no half-assed attempt by Assad to shed inevitability is going to stop it. He’ll continue his shenanigans, but to a cost he can’t afford in the long run. Meanwhile, Lebanon will continue to push forward and overcome these attacks on its lifeblood. It will have to.