ShiningIce
3rd Level Green Feather
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2002
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- 4,702
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SIDON, Lebanon - An American missionary was shot dead in southern Lebanon Thursday, police said.
The body of Bonnie Penner, 31, was found by a colleague lying in a pool of blood with three gunshot wounds in the head, police said.
The killing occurred around 8 a.m. (0600 GMT), just after Penner opened the Unity Center, which houses a chapel and a clinic, in the port city of Sidon.
Police believe an unidentified gunman knocked on the door and shot her with a 7 mm pistol. The killer fled.
Police officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Penner, a nurse married to a Briton, had been working at the clinic for a year and a half.
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut confirmed the death of Penner, saying the victim was married to Garry Whitherall, a British citizen.
"She had lived and worked in Sidon for two years. The U.S. and U.K. Embassies are coordinating with Lebanese authorities on an investigation into Ms. Penner's death," the embassy said in a statement.
The Embassy said she was from California, but did not have a hometown. Authorities in Sidon first identified the victim as Bonnie Weatherall, apparently confusing her husband's name.
Shortly after news of the killing broke, the U.S. Ambassador Vincent Battle met in Beirut with Interior Minister Elias Murr to discuss the incident. No details on the meeting were available.
The Unity Center's director, Rev. Sami Dagher, said the center provides medical care and aid to Lebanese and Palestinians refugees.
A few hours after the crime, a sign was posted at the center's gate reading: "With regret, we announce that all the Unity Center's activities have been suspended for now."
It was not clear whether the killing was politically motivated. Dagher said there had been no threats prior to the killing and he did not know of a possible motive.
"Bonnie died because she loved the people of Sidon," he told reporters outside the center, which was sealed off by security troops.
"May God forgive them," said Dagher, who heads the Christian Unity Church in Lebanon, referring to the gunman and whoever might have been associated with him.
Penner was a missionary for the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Lebanon.
Local Muslim clerics have criticized the Unity Center in the past, accusing it of preaching Christianity and trying to indoctrinate Sidon's youth in favor of Christianity.
This week, Sidon's religious leaders condemned a proposed visit by U.S. Ambassador Vincent Battle, who planned to host a banquet for the city's officials and clerics on Tuesday. Battle canceled the meal, which was to have been an iftar, the breaking of the daytime fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The owner of a grocery shop next to the center described Penner as a "humanitarian" who would buy a bar of chocolate from him every day, always greeting him in Arabic.
"She was nice, modest and decent," said the shopkeeper, who refused to give his name.
Sidon's legislators and notables condemned the crime and called on authorities to uncover the killer.
"What happened is considered a threat to our security and the country's safety through Sidon. The target is not Sidon, but Lebanon as a whole by stirring up security disturbances," legislator Bahiya Hariri, a sister of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said in a statement.
A U.S. Embassy delegation went to the center to inspect the scene of the crime.
The embassy officials emerged with Penner's husband, who hid his face and declined to talk to reporters. He drove off in an embassy vehicle.
The killing was the first of an American in more than 10 years in Lebanon, which saw many attacks against Americans in the 1980s during the civil war.
Anti-American sentiment has been building across the Middle East. Many Arabs see the U.S.-Iraq standoff as evidence of an American stand against Arabs, and resent Washington support for Israel in its conflict with Palestinians.
On Nov. 12, small bombs exploded outside three American fast-food restaurants in Lebanon, causing damage but no casualties.
In Jordan last month, a U.S. aid agency official was shot and killed outside his home in the capital.
The body of Bonnie Penner, 31, was found by a colleague lying in a pool of blood with three gunshot wounds in the head, police said.
The killing occurred around 8 a.m. (0600 GMT), just after Penner opened the Unity Center, which houses a chapel and a clinic, in the port city of Sidon.
Police believe an unidentified gunman knocked on the door and shot her with a 7 mm pistol. The killer fled.
Police officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Penner, a nurse married to a Briton, had been working at the clinic for a year and a half.
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut confirmed the death of Penner, saying the victim was married to Garry Whitherall, a British citizen.
"She had lived and worked in Sidon for two years. The U.S. and U.K. Embassies are coordinating with Lebanese authorities on an investigation into Ms. Penner's death," the embassy said in a statement.
The Embassy said she was from California, but did not have a hometown. Authorities in Sidon first identified the victim as Bonnie Weatherall, apparently confusing her husband's name.
Shortly after news of the killing broke, the U.S. Ambassador Vincent Battle met in Beirut with Interior Minister Elias Murr to discuss the incident. No details on the meeting were available.
The Unity Center's director, Rev. Sami Dagher, said the center provides medical care and aid to Lebanese and Palestinians refugees.
A few hours after the crime, a sign was posted at the center's gate reading: "With regret, we announce that all the Unity Center's activities have been suspended for now."
It was not clear whether the killing was politically motivated. Dagher said there had been no threats prior to the killing and he did not know of a possible motive.
"Bonnie died because she loved the people of Sidon," he told reporters outside the center, which was sealed off by security troops.
"May God forgive them," said Dagher, who heads the Christian Unity Church in Lebanon, referring to the gunman and whoever might have been associated with him.
Penner was a missionary for the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Lebanon.
Local Muslim clerics have criticized the Unity Center in the past, accusing it of preaching Christianity and trying to indoctrinate Sidon's youth in favor of Christianity.
This week, Sidon's religious leaders condemned a proposed visit by U.S. Ambassador Vincent Battle, who planned to host a banquet for the city's officials and clerics on Tuesday. Battle canceled the meal, which was to have been an iftar, the breaking of the daytime fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The owner of a grocery shop next to the center described Penner as a "humanitarian" who would buy a bar of chocolate from him every day, always greeting him in Arabic.
"She was nice, modest and decent," said the shopkeeper, who refused to give his name.
Sidon's legislators and notables condemned the crime and called on authorities to uncover the killer.
"What happened is considered a threat to our security and the country's safety through Sidon. The target is not Sidon, but Lebanon as a whole by stirring up security disturbances," legislator Bahiya Hariri, a sister of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, said in a statement.
A U.S. Embassy delegation went to the center to inspect the scene of the crime.
The embassy officials emerged with Penner's husband, who hid his face and declined to talk to reporters. He drove off in an embassy vehicle.
The killing was the first of an American in more than 10 years in Lebanon, which saw many attacks against Americans in the 1980s during the civil war.
Anti-American sentiment has been building across the Middle East. Many Arabs see the U.S.-Iraq standoff as evidence of an American stand against Arabs, and resent Washington support for Israel in its conflict with Palestinians.
On Nov. 12, small bombs exploded outside three American fast-food restaurants in Lebanon, causing damage but no casualties.
In Jordan last month, a U.S. aid agency official was shot and killed outside his home in the capital.
