A remote-control Beirut car bomb wounded a prominent Lebanese opposition politician and killed his driver on Friday, weeks after the former minister quit the government to protest Syria's grip on Lebanon.
The target of the attack, Druze parliamentarian Marwan Hamadeh resigned as economy minister last month to protest parliament extending Syrian-backed President Emile Lahoud's term by three years.
The attack came as Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who has called on Lahoud to resign and denounced the extension of his mandate as unconstitutional, was trying to put together an opposition front with anti-Syrian Christian politicians.
Lahoud called the attack on Hamadeh an attempt to sow "internal strife on the national level."
Hamadeh had just left his home in the Manara shorefront district of the capital when a blast tossed his car to the side of the road and set two others on fire. His driver was killed and a bodyguard seriously wounded, hospital officials said.
Hamadeh suffered injuries to his face and legs, officials said, but his condition was described as stable.