LEBANON:Three thousand mourners chanted anti-Syrian slogans yesterday at the funeral of a Lebanese politician killed in a car-bomb attack that deepened Lebanon's political crisis.
Walid Eido was the seventh anti-Syrian figure to be assassinated since February 2005, when former prime minister Rafik al- Hariri was killed in a suicide truck bombing.
Allies of Mr Eido said the killing was Syria's response to a UN Security Council vote last week establishing a court to try suspects in the Hariri attack. Syria has denied any links to Mr 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 slowly through the streets of Beirut, mourners shouted slogans against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his ally, Lebanese president Emile Lahoud, yelling: "Oh Beirut, we want revenge against Lahoud and Bashar."
Mr Eido, a Sunni Muslim, belonged to the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc led by Mr Hariri's son, Saad al-Hariri, which controls the government
"I tell the criminals that God willing, you will be punished and dragged to jail like low-lives," Mr Hariri told the crowd.
Wednesday's bombing near a Beirut beach club killed Mr Eido, his eldest son, two bodyguards and six passersby. Businesses, banks and schools were shut in Beirut and elsewhere to observe a national day of mourning.
Three ambulances bore coffins draped in Lebanese flags to a Beirut mosque. Mourners carried the white-and-blue flags of Mr Hariri's Future Trend movement and filed past pictures of Mr Eido and his lawyer son bearing the slogan "Men of Justice".
"We have been living in the shadow of savage crimes, but we will not change our path," said one mourner. "We will stay the course until the truth appears and justice takes its course."
Mr Eido's death is likely to fuel tension between the government and the opposition, led by the pro-Syrian Shia Hizbullah group, which also condemned the killing. Parliament member Wael Abou-Faour said the assassination was aimed at cutting the majority of Mr Hariri's bloc, which now has 68 seats in what was originally a parliament of 128 members.
President Lahoud refused to call a byelection when another anti-Syrian MP, cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, was shot dead in November, saying the government had lost its legitimacy.
"The dramatic scenario is clear: Bashar Assad is assassinating parliamentarians and Emile Lahoud is not allowing [ byelections] to elect others," Mr Abou-Faour said.
Tension was already high before the attack. The army has been battling al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in the north for more than three weeks.
Sporadic clashes continued yesterday, with troops pounding Fatah al-Islam positions in Nahr al-Bared.-