Huge crowds turned out yesterday for the funeral of anti-Syrian Lebanese MP Antoine Ghanem, whose assassination has stirred fears of more instability in the tense runup to a key presidential vote.
Church bells tolled and thousands of mourners clapped as the lawmaker's coffin and those of his two slain bodyguards were carried by pallbearers into the packed Sacred Heart church in the Christian district of Badaro, east of Beirut.
Family and friends, along with prominent political leaders from the ruling majority and foreign diplomats, stood somberly in the Maronite Catholic church as the three coffins, draped in Lebanese flags, were placed near the altar.
Outside the church, thousands of mourners gathered, many weeping and waving both the Lebanese flag and the banner of Ghanem's Christian Phalange party as brass bands played to pay their last respects.
Women threw rice and rose petals from balconies when the cortege made its way from the morgue of the Lebanese Canadian hospital, near the site of Wednesday's bomb blast that killed Ghanem and four others, to the Furn el-Shebak neighborhood near Badaro.
"We are all desperate," said mourner Siham, in her 40s. "We can't keep burying martyrs. Is there no end to these assassinations."
Flags flew at half mast and schools and businesses were shut after the government declared a day of official mourning for the funeral.
Apart from Ghanem and his guards, the other two victims of the blast were a grandmother drinking coffee with the family on her balcony and a young executive driving home from work.
One was buried on Thursday. The other was to be laid to rest separately yesterday.
It was the second assassination to hit the Phalange party in the past 12 months. Industry minister Pierre Gemayel was killed last November.
Leaders from all sides of the political spectrum have vowed to go ahead with the controversial presidential vote scheduled for next Tuesday despite the assassination which drew condemnation from around the world.
The election comes amid political deadlock between the Western-backed Cabinet and the pro-Damascus opposition.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned that the naming of two rival governments in Lebanon would be the "worst case scenario" and called for the timely election of a new president, in an interview with Beirut's An-Nahar newspaper.
Pro-government MPs in Beirut have pointed a finger of blame at Syria, which denied any involvement and said the bombing was a "criminal act" aimed at undermining efforts at a rapprochement with Lebanon.
Hezbollah, the leading party in the opposition, said the assassination was "a blow to the country's security and stability as well as any attempt at reconciliation" and called for feuding political parties to show unity.
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