A Lebanese anti-Syrian lawmaker was among 10 people killed in an explosion here.
The bomb, concealed in a parked vehicle, detonated as lawmaker Walid Aido’s car drove by near the seafront in the Lebanese capital on Wednesday. One of his sons and two bodyguards were among the dead. At least 11 people were wounded.
According to the footage of al-Jazeera TV, the explosion occurred in a busy street and set a car ablaze. Several other cars and nearby buildings were also badly damaged in the blast.
Aido, 64, was a member of al Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc, which is headed by MP Saad Hariri, son of slain ex-Primier Rafik Hariri.
He was the third member of the parliament to be assassinated since Rafik Hariri and MP Bassil Fleihan were killed in 2005. The other two were Gibran Tueini and Pierre Gemayel, son of former president Amin Gemayel. Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a pro-Syrian ally of Hezbollah, condemned the killing.
“No individual, group, organisation or party using terrorism and organised crime will be able to make Lebanon an arena for unrest, strife, wars and score-settling,” the local press quoted him as saying.
The explosion was the latest in a series to hit Lebanon in the past three weeks as Lebanese troops battled Islamic militants in a Palestinian refugee camp in the northern part of the country.
In a telephone interview with the Arabic daily Asharq Alawsat published on Wednesday, a Fatah al-Islam leader threatened to kill Lebanese politicians if the army staged a final showdown on its militants in the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared.
“Leading political figures on Lebanese territory would be targeted by explosive charges and booby-trapped motorcycles if we were confronted by the (Lebanese) government,” said Abu Masaab from his Nahr al-Bared hideout.
The Lebanese Army has been fighting with the militants of Fatah al-Islam holed up in the Nahr al-Bared camp since May 20. The bloodiest internal violence since the Lebanese 1975-1990 civil war has killed more than 140 people, including at least 62 soldiers, more than 50 militants and 32 civilians.