Lebanese anti-Syrian parliamentarian Walid Edo died on Wednesday, with at least nine other people, when a bomb ripped through his car in western Beirut, security sources said.
One of Edo's sons - Khalid - was among the dead by the powerful explosion on Beirut's seafront which also wounded at least 11 other people, they said. Two body guards and two civilians were also killed in the Manara car bomb.
Edo, 64, was a member of the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of Saad al-Hariri, which controls the Beirut government. "His car was targeted by an explosive device," a security source told Reuters.
Edo had been a vocal opponent of Syrian influence in Lebanon and an ally of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri before his assassination in February 2005. Edo was the seventh anti-Syrian politician to be killed since Hariri.
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.
Fellow anti-Syrian deputy Wael Abou-Faour blamed Damascus for the explosion. "Walid Edo was a symbol of democracy in Lebanon. Walid Edo was assassinated because there is a decision by the Syrian regime to terminate the March 14 bloc," Abou-Faour told Al Arabiya television. "The Assad regime did not have enough of the blood of the free in Lebanon."
Elsewhere, two Lebanese troops died in fresh fighting at the Nahr al-Bared camp on Wednesday, security sources said.
