Lebanese Christian Leader Killed
    The Associated Press

    Tuesday 21 November 2006

Cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel shot, killed driving in Christian suburb.

    Beirut, Lebanon - Prominent anti-Syrian Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday, his Phalange Party radio station and Lebanon's official news agency reported.

    The shooting will certainly heighten the political tension in Lebanon, where the leading Muslim Shiite party Hezbollah has threatened to topple the government if it does not get a bigger say in Cabinet decision-making.

    Witnesses said Gemayel was shot in his car in Jdeideh, a Christian neighborhood, his constituency on the northern edge of Beirut. The witnesses said a car rammed his car from behind and then an assassin stepped out and shot him at point blank range.

    Gemayel was rushed to a nearby hospital, according to the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and the Voice of Lebanon, the Phalange Party mouthpiece. The party radio later said he was dead, as did the National News Agency.

    Gemayel is the third prominent figure in Lebanese politics to be assassinated in the past two years. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive car bombing in February 2005 and lawmaker and newspaper manager Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bombing in December

    Anti-Syrian Stance

    Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, broke off a televised news conference after hearing that Gemayel had been shot. He later accused Syria of playing a role, saying, the "hand of Syria" is behind Gemayel's killing, Hariri later told CNN.

    Hariri hailed Gemayel as "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."

    Gemayel, the minister of industry and son of former President Amin Gemayel, was a supporter of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, which is locked in a power struggle with pro-Syrian factions led by Hezbollah.

    He was named for his grandfather, who founded the Phalange Party in 1936 to exert Christian power in Lebanon. It dominated Christian politics for decades after Lebanon's independence from France in 1943.

    During the civil war, the Phalange had the largest Christian militia that fought Muslim forces and Palestinian guerrillas. The death of the senior Pierre Gemayel in 1983, the shrinking Christian community and internal dissent have seriously weakened the party, which could not get its own leader elected to parliament in 2000.

    Amin Gemayel served as Lebanon's president from 1982 to 1988. He was elected by parliament after the assassination of his brother, Bashir, who was chosen president but was killed a few days before he was to take office.