Eido's murder will further fuel heightened tensions

Beirut: Lebanese parliamentarian Walid Eido was killed yesterday, with at least nine other people, when a bomb ripped through his car in western Beirut, security sources said.

One of Eido's sons was among the dead by the blast on Beirut's seafront which also wounded at least 11 other people, they said.

Eido, 64, was a member of the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of Sa'ad Hariri, which controls the Beirut government.

Eido had been a vocal opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon and an ally of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri before his assassination by a massive car bomb in February 2005.

Eido was killed just three days after a UN Security Council resolution came into effect setting up an international tribunal into the Hariri assassination.

Sa'ad and his allies in the majority coalition accuse Syria of the Hariri killing and attacks on other anti-Syrian figures which followed. Syria denies involvement.

The blast hit near an amusement park and military sporting club. Television pictures showed a burnt car set ablaze and shattered windows at a nearby restaurant.

It was the sixth blast to hit Beirut and the surrounding areas in less than four weeks.

Eido was the seventh anti-Syrian politician to be killed since Hariri. His murder would further fuel heightened tensions between the government and the pro-Damascus opposition led by Hezbollah, the group determined to topple what it regards as a pro-US cabinet.

Fellow anti-Syrian deputy Wael Abou Faour blamed Damascus for the blast.

"Walid Eido was a symbol of democracy in Lebanon. Walid Eido was assassinated because there is a decision by the Syrian regime to terminate the March 14 bloc," Abou-Faour told Al Arabiya television.

2 soldiers killed in camp

"The [Bashar Al] Assad regime did not have enough of the blood of the free in Lebanon." He said the purpose of the killing was to change the balance of power in the Lebanese parliament, making the current anti-Syrian majority into a minority, before it elects a president.

The explosion was the latest in a series of bombings in Lebanon, where the army is battling Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in the north of the country. Two Lebanese soldiers were killed in fresh fighting at the Nahr Al Bared camp yesterday, security sources said.