Hezbollah Against Foreign Probe of Assassination The powerful Shiite militant group Hezbollah, a close ally of Syria, said Tuesday it opposes calls to hand over the investigation of the assassination of an anti-Syrian intelligence official to the international tribunal probing similar killings of other Lebanese political figures. The most prominent case before the Netherlands-based tribunal is the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was the country's leading opponent of Syrian involvement in Lebanon at the time. Syria dominated Lebanon for decades until it was forced to withdraw tens of thousands of troops in 2005 amid a backlash over Hariri's killing by a massive truck bomb. Some anti-Syrian politicians have called for the investigation to be referred to the international tribunal in the aftermath of Friday's car bomb that killed intelligence officer Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan. "Any attempt to give an international dimension to this case will not do anything to this case," Hezbollah's deputy leader Sheik Naim Kassam said in a statement released by the group. This is a Lebanese affair and under the authority of Lebanese laws. The U.N.-backed tribunal indicted four Hezbollah members in the killing of Hariri and 22 others. Hezbollah, which along with its allies dominates Lebanon's government, denies involvement. Workers remove broken glass and debris from a clothing shop damaged in a car bomb attack that killed Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan in the Achrafiye district of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. Calm returned to the streets of Lebanon's capital on Tuesday, a day after troops launched a major security operation to quell fighting touched off by the assassination of a top anti-Syrian intelligence chief. Al-Hassan was very close to Rafik Hariri's son Saad Hariri, also a former prime minister. He was once in charge of security for Rafik Hariri and later investigated Hariri's killing. The assassination on Friday, blamed by many on the Syrian regime, has stirred up sectarian violence in Lebanon where people are deeply divided between supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad's government in Damascus. Syria has intervened heavily in Lebanese affairs over the past decades and is blamed for the deaths of many prominent critics and anti-Syrian political figures. Al-Hassan challenged both Syria and its powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah. Seven people have died in clashes between pro- and anti-Syria factions sparked by the assassination - the deadliest violence in Beirut in four years. Late Monday, the police chief released details of the investigation into al-Hassan's assassination, describing a carefully planned car bombing that targeted the intelligence officer as he was moving about the capital in secret. Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi told a group of journalists that al-Hassan was assassinated outside one of his secret offices where he used to meet with informants. He was driving an unarmored rental car for camouflage. Al-Hassan was one of Lebanon's most secretive figures, and until his death many Lebanese did not know what he looked like. "The martyr Wissam had an appointment in this office and it seems he was watched," Rifi said, adding that the booby-trapped car went off as al-Hassan's car was passing slowly by through the narrow street. The secret office in the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Achrafieh is few hundred meters (yards) away from the heavily-fortified police headquarters where al-Hassan spent most of his time while in Lebanon. Rifi also said investigators had identified the car used in the bombing as one stolen a year earlier. Rifi added that the car was detonated by remote control, probably from a spot overlooking the street.