Pierre Gemayel, Lebanon’s Industry Minister and son of a former President, was shot dead yesterday in his car in a Beirut suburb. It was the first assassination of a leading anti-Syrian figure in almost a year.

The murder of the 34-year-old minister is certain to increase political tensions in Lebanon, where the militant Shia Hezbollah party is leading a drive to overturn the Western-backed Government.

Mr Gemayel was driving off from his office in the eastern Beirut suburb of Jdeidet when a car rammed into him from behind. At least three gunmen sprang from the car and opened fire at point-blank range with silenced automatic weapons. The mortally wounded minister was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead soon afterwards.

Hundreds of angry and weeping supporters of the Gemayel family converged on the St Youssef hospital in the Doura suburb of Beirut, where a stream of leading anti-Syrian figures paid condolences.

The Gemayels are one of Lebanon’s leading political dynasties. Mr Gemayel’s grandfather, also Pierre, founded the Phalange party, at one time the leading Christian political body. His uncle, Bashir, was assassinated in a bomb blast in September 1982, days before being sworn in as President. Speaking to reporters outside the hospital, an ashen-faced Amine Gemayel, Pierre’s father and former Lebanese President, called on supporters not to react with violence. “I would like to ask those who loved Pierre to preserve the cause. We don’t want to do anything instinctively,” he said. “He was serving the cause and he died for Lebanon, for freedom and humanity and we should not tarnish his memory by any irresponsible acts.”

But in Zahle, a Christian town in the Bekaa Valley, protesters chanted anti-Hezbollah slogans and blocked off streets.

The shooting came a week after six pro-Syrian ministers resigned from the 24-seat Government, plunging the country into turmoil. The resignations came after a deadlock over Hezbollah’s demand that it and its allies be given a greater stake in the Cabinet. Hezbollah says that unless the Government changes its mind the pro-Syrian opposition will begin pushing for early parliamentary elections.

Under the Lebanese Constitution, a government can continue functioning unless one third of the Cabinet resigns or is incapacitated. The resignations and Mr Gemayel’s murder mean that if another minister is removed the Government will fall. Three hours before Mr Gemayel’s murder gunmen opened fire at the offices of Michel Pharaon, the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs. No one was hurt.

Mr Gemayel, who was elected to parliament last year, is the fifth prominent anti-Syrian Lebanese to be killed since Rafik Hariri, a former prime minister, was murdered in February last year. The killings have been widely blamed on Syria, although the country has denied involvement.

• The UN Security Council “unequivocally condemned” Mr Gemayel’s killing last night and approved the creation of an international court to try political assassins in Lebanon (James Bone writes from New York).

  The “special tribunal” will try those responsible for the car bombing that killed Mr Hariri, and other related attacks against critics of Syrian influence in Lebanon.

  The proposal could allow the court to claim jurisdiction over Mr Gemayel’s assassination if investigators determine that it is linked to Mr Hariri’s killing.

  At Russia and Qatar’s insistence, the 15-nation Security Council said that the creation of the court must be “in conformity with the constitution of Lebanon”. Lebanon’s pro-Syrian President, Emile Lahoud, wrote to the UN last week to complain that the Lebanese Cabinet’s approval of the proposed tribunal was illegitimate because it required his consent.

Assassinations

February 2005 Rafik Hariri, former Prime Minister, truck filled with explosives

June 2005 Samir Kassir, a journalist, car bomb

June 2005 George Hawi, anti-Syria politician, car bomb

December 2005 Gebran Tueni, anti-Syria journalist and MP, car bomb

November 2006 Pierre Gemayel, Industry Minister, shot in car

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Cabal seizes diamond riches to buy power
• White House gatecrashers got to the president