Car bomb kills anti-Syrian MP, 9 others in Beirut

By Tom Perry and Yara Bayoumy

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A powerful car bomb killed anti-Syrian Lebanese lawmaker Walid Eido and nine other people on Wednesday in an attack his allies blamed on Damascus.

A parked sports utility vehicle packed with 60 to 80 kg (132 to 176 lbs) of explosives blew up as Eido's car was driving away from a Beirut beach club, a senior security source said.

One of the parliamentarian's sons and two bodyguards were among the dead. At least 11 people were wounded.

Eido, 64, belonged to the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of Saad al-Hariri, which controls the government.

A Sunni Muslim lawyer, he had been a foe of Syrian influence in Lebanon and an ally of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was assassinated by a suicide truck bomber in February 2005.

Eido was killed just three days after a U.N. Security Council resolution came into effect setting up an international tribunal to try suspects in Hariri's assassination.

"This crime is a clear message from the Syrian regime to Lebanon in response to the establishment of the international tribunal," Saad al-Hariri's coalition said in a statement.

Hariri says Syria was behind his father's killing and later attacks. Damascus denies involvement. Including Eido, seven anti-Syrian figures have been slain in Lebanon since 2005.

"It is the same fingers that assassinated the martyred premier Rafik al-Hariri," Hariri said of Eido's killing.

There was no immediate comment from Syria. Its allies in Lebanon denounced the assassination.

"BIG, UGLY CLOUD"

The blast, near a seafront amusement park and a football club, destroyed several cars and shattered windows of nearby buildings. It hurled the bodies of Eido and his son over a wall and into the football ground, witnesses said.

Two players in the Nejmeh football team, which is in Lebanon's top league, were among those killed.

"It sounded like it was in your backyard," said Herbert Lahout, 45, a U.S. citizen who had been playing volleyball on a nearby beach. "It was like a mushroom cloud, a big ugly cloud."

Five less powerful bombs have exploded in and around Beirut in the past month, killing two people.