Anti-Syrian MP killed in Beirut

A car bomb killed Lebanese newspaper magnate and anti-Syrian legislator Gebran Tueni in Beirut yesterday, less than 24 hours after he returned from Paris where he lived for several months fearing assassination.

Several politicians blamed Syria and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he would ask the UN Security Council to investigate a series of attacks that have rocked Lebanon since the February 14 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

A United Nations report said Syria had hindered an international investigation into Mr Hariri's murder and that five Syrian officials questioned by the UN in Vienna were suspects.

Syria denies any role in the attacks and said the latest killing was timed to smear it.

Police said Mr Tueni, publisher of the An-Nahar daily newspaper, was among four people killed in the explosion that destroyed his armoured vehicle in the Mekalis area of mainly Christian east Beirut. More than 30 people were wounded.

The bodies of Mr Tueni, 48, his driver and a bodyguard were found in the vehicle, charred beyond recognition. Assault rifles and military bags lay beside them.

Security sources said a parked car packed with up to 100 kilogramme of dynamite was detonated remotely as Mr Tueni's car passed, hurling it into another street.

The United States said the killing was an "act of terrorism" designed to try and subjugate Lebanon to Syrian domination.

A previously unknown group called "Strugglers for the Unity and Freedom of the Levant" claimed responsibility for the killing in a statement faxed to Reuters, saying the same fate awaited other opponents of "Arabism" in Lebanon.

There was no way to verify the authenticity of the claim, whose wording looked designed to cast suspicion on Damascus.

Mr Tueni was killed just hours before the Security Council received the report by chief investigator Detlev Mehlis that identified 19 suspects in Mr Hariri's murder but did not name them. It said statements by two Syrian suspects suggested "all Syrian intelligence documents concerning Lebanon had been burned".

Lebanon has detained four pro-Syrian generals but the report said the probe, which expires this month, needed more time.

"Given the slow pace with which the Syrian authorities are beginning to discharge their commitments... the commission recommends that there be such an extension and for a minimum period of six months," it said.