Lebanese Recovers from Bomb

A week after being flown in for treatment, a prominent Sunni Moslem leader from Lebanon and his wife are recovering in Harvard-affiliated hospitals from injuries sustained in a car bombing

Mustafa and Lobove Saad, both 33 years old, were severely hurt and suffered eye injuries when a car bomb exploded outside their home in Sidon in war-ravaged Southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

The Saads were injuired when a car containing an estimated 200 pounds of explosives exploded under the family's Five-story apartment building in the port city of Sidon.

The blast, which killed two persons immediately and injured more that 30 others, also killed the Saad's 12-year-old daughter Natasha. In reaction to the bombing, officials closed schools and businesses in southern Lebanon last Tuesday.

Saad, leader of Sidon's Sunni Moslem majority and an outspoken critic of Israeli presence in Southern Lebanon, remains in guarded condition in the intensive care unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. Saad is conscious and "has made good progress over the last two or three days," said a hospital spokesman.

Saad's wife, Lobove, is in stable condition at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. No prognosis will be available on either patient until later today or tomorrow, according to hospital sources.

The Saads were flown from Beirat to Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary last Wednesday because Associate Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology Dr. H MacKenzie Freeman had been recommended to them hospital sources said. Mustafa was transfered to Massachusetts General Hospital after the eye surgery Wednesday night for another operation, this one for his severe head injuries.

Spokesmen at both hospitals refused to comment about what security precautions had been taken to ensure the Saad's safety or if the had been any security problems. "We are taking the appropriate security measures," said a source at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

A spokesman at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary said that there had been about 50 calls from "well-wishers" for both Saads, while MGH reported receiving about 25 calls for Saad.