Lebanese politician assassinated

Key Lebanese politician assassinated
By ZEINA KARAM and SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writers
Tue Nov 21, 6:42 PM ET

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Pierre Gemayel, scion of Lebanon's most prominent Christian family and a leading opponent of Syria, was gunned down Tuesday in a brazen daytime hit. The assassination threatened to intensify Lebanon's power struggle between the U.S.-allied government and the Syrian-backed Hezbollah.


Gemayel, 34, was leaving church when he fell into a well-coordinated attack: One vehicle cut off his car from the front, another rammed him from behind, then gunmen burst out and sprayed a dozen bullets into his passenger-side window.

The killing sent tensions spiraling at a time when Lebanon was already facing a worsening political crisis. The Shiite Muslim guerrilla group Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies have threatened massive protests — as early as Thursday — aimed at bringing down Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government unless it gives them greater power.

President Bush condemned the assassination and accused Syria and Iran of seeking to undermine Saniora's government. Bush stopped short of specifically blaming them for Gemayel's death, though the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, raised the possibility.

Anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon, however, directly pointed the finger at Damascus, and some Gemayel supporters demanded revenge against Syria's Lebanese allies.

Bands of young Christians broke car windows and burned tires and garbage cans in their areas of Beirut and the Gemayel family's mountain hometown of Bikfaya to the northeast. But

Lebanese troops quickly stopped the unrest and set up checkpoints to prevent demonstrations in the coming days. A funeral was set for Thursday in downtown Beirut, with the anti-Syrian factions calling for mass participation.

Politicians from all sides scrambled to contain the fallout of the assassination, urging calm amid fears of an outbreak of the brutal violence between Lebanon's sharply divided communities that marked the 1975-90 civil war.

A stunned-looking former president Amin Gemayel — Pierre's father and leader of the Phalange Party — urged his supporters to observe a night of "prayer and reflection."

"We don't want an outburst of emotions and revenge," he said outside the hospital where his son died. "He was martyred for the cause of Lebanon, and we want this cause to triumph. ... To all those who love Pierre, we should not be driven by instinct."