BEIRUT, 3 June 2005 — Prominent anti-Syrian journalist Samir Kassir was killed yesterday when a bomb exploded under his car in Beirut in an attack blamed on the pro-Syrian regime and widely condemned at home and abroad.

Lebanese opposition figures blamed the blast on the government and Syria and called for the resignation of President Emile Lahoud. “The blood-stained hands that assassinated Rafik Hariri are the same ones that assassinated Samir Kassir,” said Hariri’s son and political heir Saad, whose father’s killing in February was blamed by many on Lebanese and Syrian intelligence.

Elias Atallah, a senior official with the Democratic Left opposition movement of which Kassir was a founding member, pointed the finger of blame at the Lebanese and Syrian regimes.

Syria angrily rejected accusations of its involvement. “An Information Ministry official absolutely rejected the assertions made by certain Lebanese involved with news and politics who, as is their habit, accused Syria of perpetrating the explosion in Beirut only minutes after (the incident),” said the Syrian official news agency, Sana.

“This shows the extent to which these people harbor hostile thoughts toward Syria,” Sana said.

Kassir’s murder in mostly Christian East Beirut comes five days after the first round of general elections in Lebanon, held just a month after the last Syrian soldier left Lebanese soil.

Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa told a news conference Kassir was killed instantly when a bomb under his car weighing between 500 and 700 grams was “most probably” detonated by remote control.

The Lebanese government instructed the justice minister to “seek the help of any local and foreign party which has the means of solving the crime.”

The decision came after Lahoud said he was due to meet with the head of the UN commission probing Hariri’s assassination to ask for help in investigating Kassir’s killing.

Kassir’s brother Sleiman said he “lived all his life in danger.” Asked about a possible motive for the killing, he said: “He used to write all these articles against Syria.”

Kassir was an editorial writer for An-Nahar newspaper.