BEIRUT, July 12: Lebanon’s pro-Syrian Defence Minister Elias Murr survived an apparent assassination attempt with light wounds when a car bomb exploded outside Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least two and injuring nine others.

The minister was driving from his home in an upscale Christian suburb, 10 kilometres north of the capital, when an estimated 40 kilograms of TNT exploded in a nearby parked car.

Seven cars were completely destroyed by the blast, which left a scene of devastation for hundreds of metres around that has become all too familiar for Beirut residents.

One woman, Sihan, told how the windows of her apartment were blown out by the blast.

“Luckily, we were all in the kitchen and no one was hurt. We were lucky but who knows how long that will last?” she said.

Murr, 43, the Christian deputy prime minister and son-in-law of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, was taken with superficial burns and a hand injury to Serhal hospital, from where he issued a statement aimed at “reassuring the Lebanese”.

“Thank God I am in good health and I wish a speedy recovery for all the bodyguards and the wounded. We must support them as the country is going through a very difficult period,” he said from his hospital bed.

This was the third apparent attack on a leading political figure within the space of less than two months. However, the previous two bombs that killed a journalist and an ex-communist leader targeted anti-Syrian figures.

Syria, which pulled its troops out of Lebanon in April amid relentless international pressure following the February assassination of anti-Damascus former premier Rafiq Hariri, fiercely condemned the new attack.

“Syria considers this terrorist act as one link in a series of explosions and assassinations aimed at destabilising Lebanon and weakening its national unity,” the official SANA agency quoted an information ministry official as saying.

The European Union condemned “with the greatest firmness the odious Attack,” said a statement from the bloc’s delegation in Beirut, adding that the blast showed Lebanon’s urgent need to consolidate national unity.

Britain’s ambassador to Lebanon, James Watt, called the attack a “shocking crime,” while the Russian foreign ministry condemned “this terrorist act” saying “we hope the Lebanese won’t yield to provocations”.

In Amman, the government expressed “its confidence in the ability of the Lebanese people to overcome these attempts which are aimed at undermining Lebanon’s unity, security and stability.”

Druze leader Walid Jumblatt claimed that the attack was aimed at silencing a man who could potentially give incriminating evidence to international investigators still probing the Hariri murder.

“There is a plot to eliminate all the witnesses or everyone able to give information on the assassination of Rafiq Hariri,” Jumblatt told private satellite channel LBCI.

“We still live under the former politico-security regime ... When you accept compromises, you suffer the consequences.”

Rafiq Hariri’s son Saad spoke of a “hand that wants to destabilise Lebanon and kill politicians and journalists”.

Interior Minister Hassen Sabeh described the attack as a message aimed “at destabilising Lebanon and forcing fear, desperation and instability on its people.—AFP