Lebanon tense as murdered MP is laid to rest

Beirut: Some 3,000 mourners chanted anti-Syrian slogans yesterday at the funeral of a Lebanese legislator killed in a car bomb attack that deepened Lebanon's political crisis.

Allies of Eido said the killing was Syria's response to a UN Security Council vote last week establishing a court to try suspects in the Rafik Hariri attack.

But Syria denied any links to Eido's assassination. "Syria strongly denounces this crime and condemns the campaign of lies by some Lebanese used to accuse Syria after any killing and before an investigation even starts," a Syrian Foreign Ministry statement said.

As the funeral procession moved through the streets of Beirut, mourners shouted slogans against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and his ally, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, yelling: "O Beirut, we want revenge against Lahoud and Bashar."

Eido, a Sunni Muslim, belonged to the majority parliamentary bloc led by Hariri's son, Sa'ad Al Hariri, which controls the government. Parliament member Wael Abu Faour said the assassination was aimed at cutting the majority of Hariri's bloc.

Army tightens noose on militants

The Lebanese army yesterday said it has made advances against besieged Islamists at a Palestinian refugee camp, seizing an ammunition cache and detaining one of the fighters' medics, AFP reported. Amid sporadic fighting, the army detained Palestinian doctor Omar Abu Merssi after he surrendered at a checkpoint outside Nahr Al Bared. "The army was eager to take him in because it wants to know the whereabouts of Shaker Al Abssi and his deputy Abu Hureira who have been reported to be wounded," a source said.