BEIRUT — Pierre Gemayel, an anti-Syrian politician and scion of Lebanon’s most prominent Christian family, was gunned down yesterday in his mainly Christian constituency of Jdeideh, a suburb of Beirut, heightening a growing sense of crisis in the fragile democracy.
An outspoken opponent of the Syrian-allied militia Hezbollah, Mr. Gemayel, 34, was the fifth anti-Syrian figure killed in the past two years and the first member of the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora to be slain.
The industry minister and Phalange Party member had just left a church and was traveling through Jdeideh when a vehicle in front of him slammed to a stop, causing his car to ram it, security officials said. Witnesses said Mr. Gemayel’s car was also struck from behind.
Three gunmen stepped out of the vehicles and shot Mr. Gemayel at point-blank range with automatic weapons, security officials said.
Video showed Mr. Gemayel’s car, which apparently had been shot at from both sides: the passenger-side window was shattered and the driver’s-side window was dotted with about a dozen bullet holes, and the front hood was crumpled.
Mr. Gemayel’s driver, who was wounded but survived, rushed the gravely injured politician to a nearby hospital. Soon afterward, Voice of Lebanon — the Phalange-run radio station — reported Mr. Gemayel was dead, the fifth member of his family to die in violence.
Damascus’ opponents in Lebanon have accused Syria of being behind previous assassinations, particularly that of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a bombing in Beirut in February 2005. Syria has denied those claims.
A stunned Amin Gemayel, the slain lawmaker’s father and Lebanon’s former president, urged his supporters to observe a night of “prayer and reflection over the meaning of martyrdom.”
“We don’t want an outburst of emotions and revenge,” he said outside St. Joseph’s hospital, where his son died. “He was martyred for the cause of Lebanon and we want this cause to triumph.”
Hundreds gathered at the hospital, and supporters railed against Hezbollah and Michel Aoun, a Hezbollah-allied Christian leader who is a rival of the Phalange.
Wael Abu Faour, an anti-Syrian lawmaker, told Al Jazeera: “We directly accuse the Syrian regime of assassinating Gemayel and hold [Syrian] President Bashar Assad responsible for this assassination … aimed at sending Lebanon into a civil war.”
In an interview with CNN, Saad Hariri, the slain prime minister’s son and leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, implicitly blamed Damascus, saying, “We believe the hand of Syria is all over the place.” He said Mr. Gemayel was “a friend, a brother to all of us” and appeared to break down after saying: “We will bring justice to all those who killed him.”
Mr. Gemayel’s death came hours before the U.N. Security Council voted to endorse an agreement with Lebanon to create a tribunal to prosecute suspects in Mr. Hariri’s killing.
Four Lebanese generals, top pro-Syrian security chiefs, have been under arrest for 14 months, accused of involvement in Mr. Hariri’s slaying.
Pierre Gemayel had been expected to carry the mantle of his political family. Amin Gemayel, his father and the current Phalange leader, was Lebanon’s president between 1982 and 1988. His grandfather, Pierre Gemayel, led the right-wing Christian Phalange Party that fielded the largest Christian militia and was allied with Israel during the 1975-90 civil war between Christians and Muslims.
Amin Gemayel’s brother, Bashir, was elected president in 1982 but was assassinated days before taking office. Two of Amin Gemayel’s nephews and Bashir’s daughter were killed in the 1970s and 1980s.
The slain Pierre Gemayel was a prominent figure in Lebanon’s anti-Syrian bloc, which dominates the Cabinet of Mr. Siniora and the parliament — and which is now locked in a power struggle with the Muslim Shi’ite Hezbollah and its allies. He was elected first in 2000, then re-elected in 2005.
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