Beirut

A car bomb killed a Lebanese general in a Christian suburb overlooking Beirut on Wednesday, removing a leading contender to take over as army chief from General Michel Suleiman when he becomes president. The attack heightened tension in Lebanon where rival leaders are embroiled in a tussle over the Presidency.

At least four people were killed and more than 10 wounded in an explosion in a Christian town east of Beirut on Wednesday, security sources said. The sources said the blast in Baabda, the site of Lebanon’s presidential palace on the outskirts of the capital, was caused by an explosive device.

Two more soldiers have died in Lebanon’s military operations against the Fatah al-Islam militia, bringing the death toll to 165 troops, a military spokesperson said on Wednesday. ”One soldier died from wounds on Monday, while another one was killed by a landmine on Tuesday,” he said.

Lebanese anti-Syrian parliamentarian Walid Eido was killed with at least seven other people on Wednesday by a blast on Beirut’s seafront, security sources said. One of Eido’s sons was among the dead. Nine people were wounded. Eido, in his 60s, was a member of the majority anti-Syrian parliamentary bloc of Saad al-Hariri, which controls the Beirut government.

Lebanese anti-aircraft guns fired at Israeli warplanes over southern Lebanon on Wednesday, a military spokesperson said, indicating that Lebanon’s army is taking a new assertiveness toward Israel. The Israeli planes had ”violated Lebanese sovereignty, posing a challenge to United Nations Resolution 1701,” the spokesperson said.

A curfew slapped on Beirut after street battles between the government and opposition supporters left four people dead was lifted on Friday, but the army warned it could be re-imposed if fighting flared again. An uneasy calm prevailed in the streets of the capital after the overnight curfew was lifted at 6am local time.

Four people were shot dead in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists in Lebanon on Thursday, overshadowing a ,6-billion aid deal by international donors to shore up the United States-backed government. The Lebanese army clamped a night curfew on Beirut, seeking to quell Sunni-Shi’ite tensions in a country still recovering from a 1975/1990 civil war.

At least two students were shot dead and 35 others wounded in Beirut street fighting on Thursday between students loyal to the government and opposition supporters, a security source said. Opposition-run television station NBN put the death tally from the fighting, which spilled over from the Arab University campus, at four, including two students.

Protesters bent on toppling Lebanon’s Cabinet blocked roads with blazing tyres on Tuesday, sparking clashes with government loyalists in which police said three people were killed and 133 people hurt. The violence raised the stakes in a campaign by Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah and its Shi’ite and Christian allies to oust Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s Western-supported government.

Lebanon is like a time bomb that could explode at any time if a political standoff between the government and the Hezbollah-led opposition is not resolved quickly, Lebanese Parliament speaker Nabih Berri said. Berri said that an opposition protest campaign to topple Prime Minister Fouad Siniora could get out of hand if there was no solution before the end of the month.

Former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel on Friday denied telling an Israeli newspaper that two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas in July are still alive, saying he had no information about their condition. Gemayel’s office, who said he was participating in a conference in Madrid, issued a statement saying Gemayel ”denies completely” speaking to any Israeli media.

Lebanon’s army deployed more soldiers in Beirut on Monday after the killing of a pro-Syrian Shi’ite Muslim demonstrator raised fears anti-government protests could turn into sectarian violence. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa warned the crisis could worsen and indicated he had discussed ideas for a solution with Lebanese officials during a 24-hour visit to Beirut.

Lebanon began three days of mourning on Wednesday for an anti-Syrian Cabinet minister whose assassination, blamed by his allies on Damascus, has reignited his country’s deep factional rivalries. Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, a Christian, was gunned down as he drove through a Christian suburb of Beirut on Tuesday.