Dubai: The assassination of Rafik Hariri was followed by several other political murders in Lebanon. The folliowing are the prominent ones:

Samir Al Kassir: A prominent journalist in Arabic daily An Nahhar, was assassinated by a car bomb on June 2, 2005, four months after the murder of Hariri. Born to a Syrian mother and Palestinian father in 1960, he grew up in France and Lebanon, obtaining a PhD in history from the Sorbonne. He taught at the Faculty of History at St. Joseph University and in 1981-2000, worked with Le Monde Diplomatique, also serving on the editorial board of an academic journal published by the Institute of Palestinian Studies. He wrote briefly for the London-daily Al Hayat and joined An Nahhar in 1998. After Hariri's 2005 killing he joined the March 14 Coalition and died at the age of 45.

George Hawi: The former Secretary-General of the Lebanese Political Party (LCP), was assassinated by a car bomb detonated by remote control while driving through the Mseitbe neighborhood of Beirut on June 21, 2005. He was 67 and his assassination shocked the Lebanese, given that he was a retired political leader, having stepped down from LCP leadership in 2000. Hawi rose to prominence during the Lebanese Civil War and was known by his nom de guerre, Abu Anis, having allied himself to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He joined the Lebanese National Movement of Kamal Jumblatt and played a monumental role in combating the Israeli siege of Beirut in the summer of 1982. During his lifetime, Hawi famously dabbled with figures like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and Arafat himself, who was a personal friend.

Gibran Tweini: A prominent journalist and editor-in-chief of the mass circulation Beirut daily An Nahhar, he was assassinated while driving his car on December 12, 2005. Tweini, who hails from a prominent journalistic family, is the son of Gassan Tweini, the veteran publisher of An Nahhar and grandson of Gibran, founder of the paper in 1933. After the assassination of Hariri he joined the March 14 Coalition that was headed by Sa'ad, and which included his uncle, Druze politician Marwan Hamadeh. He was a critic of Hezbollah and was among the earliest to call for their disarmament, eliciting back then, a strong response from Hasan Nasrallah personally. In May 2005, Tweini ran for Parliament on a March 14 ticket winning a Greet Orthodox seat for Beirut. He was assassinated seven months later at the age of 48 and in respect, his parliamentary seat went to his aging father, who declared that he refuses to accuse anybody for his son's death, saying, "With Gibran, we (hope) to burry hatred."

Pierre Gemayel: A scion of a leading Christian political family that had produced two presidents for Lebanon, he was assassinated in broad daylight by gunmen on November 21, 2006. Gemayel, the son of President Amin Gemayel and nephew of President-designate Bashir Gemayel, was a rising star in his family's Phalange Party.

Named after his grandfather, who was founder of the party, Gemayel was born in 1972 and studied law in Beirut and Paris, taking over his father's law firm and running for Parliament, originally as an independent, in 2000. He joined the March 14 Coalition that formed after the assassination of Hariri, becoming Minister of Industry in the cabinet of Fouad Sinora, at the young age of 33. Sixteen months later, he was gunned down by three to four armed men while he was driving his Honda CRV in the Jdeideh neighbourhood. They shot him at close range.

Walid Eido: A two-time Member of Parliament, he was murdered on the sealine of Beirut in 2007, at the age of 65. Born into a Sunni family in Beirut he studied law at the Lebanese University and graduated in 1966, rising through the legal field until becoming Public Persecutor of North Lebanon in the 1990s. In 2000, Eido was forced to resign over accusations of corruption and bribery. He joined Hariri's team that same year and while still a political unknown, won a parliamentary seat in 2000. He became a critic of Hezbollah and Syria after 2005, when he was re-elected to parliament and became a member of the Future Movement and the March 14 Coalition. He was killed on June 2, 2007 when a Mitsubishi Pajero loaded with 80kilos of explosives drove next to his car and exploded.

Antoine Ganem: A two-time Member of Parliament and senior member of the Maronite Phalange Party, he was assassinated in the Sin Al Fil suburb of Beirut—by car bomb—on September 19, 2007. Ganem, aged 64, had joined the Phalange in 1961 and rose within its ranks, becoming a MP in 2000 and 2005. During the 2000 elections he ran on Walid Jumblatt's list for a seat in the Baabda-Aley district. He actively supported ex-President Amin Gemayel's return to Phalange Party leadership and in September 2004, voted against the extension of President Emille Lahhoud's mandate. After Hariri's assassination, Ganem became a member of the March 14 Coalition that was headed by his son, Saad.

Wissam Eid: The last of the assassinated figures in Lebanon, was a captain in the Internal Security Forces (ISF) of Lebanon. His degree in computer engineering made him stand out while he was performing his military service in the 1990s, prompting ISF to hire him while it was building up its technology department. A non-political figure who belonged to a Muslim family in Deir Al Ammar, on the outskirts of Tripoli, he was hurdled into the Hariri investigation and charged with tracking phone lines, as recently shown in a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Station (CBS). When current top persecutor Daniel Bellemare rose to head the probe, telecom experts were dispatched by the UN to meet Eid. Days later, however, he was assassinated on January 25, 2008, also by car bomb.