BEIRUT, Lebanon - Emotions ran high on the streets of Christian east Beirut as angry crowds accused Lebanon's pro-Syrian regime of murdering opposition journalist Samir Kassir on Thursday.

"Assassins! Agents of Syrian corruption! Who will be the next victim?" they yelled, venting frustration at the attack against Kassir, 45, a well-known anti-Syrian journalist and author.

Kassir was killed instantly when his parked car blew up in a residential sector of east Beirut. He had been in the passenger seat, waiting for his driver. A passer-by was injured by the blast.

Prime Minister Nagib Miqati toured the scene of the explosion, which he said "targeted security and freedom. We will not allow anyone to harm the security of the country."

Opposition figures immediately blamed the blast on the regime and its political masters in Syria, which was forced to end a 29-year military deployment in Lebanon after the February murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri.

Many in the crowd shouted insults at the pro-Syrian prime minister.

"You talk about elections? You talk about democracy? The Syrians hold all the power," cried a teary-eyed woman who was held back from the scene by a security cordon.

"Go f- yourselves, Syrian henchmen," a young man screamed at the prime minister and his entourage, as Miqati made a swift turn to get back into his car.

As anger grew, the volume rose.

MP Gibran Tueini, owner of An-Nahar newspaper where Kassir worked, tried to intervene and calm the crowd. Then his guards pushed some of the young people and the situation threatened to explode.

"No! No fighting! That's what the assassins want, to divide our ranks!"

shouted Tueini. "We must stay united and show the murderers their tactics won't work."

But his speech did little to calm residents in the Christian neighborhood of Ashrafiyeh, where the attack took place in Kassir's white Alfa Romeo car parked in front of his house.

The scene was immediately sealed off by the army and internal security forces.

Kassir was a founding member of the Democratic Left movement, a main force behind the popular upheaval triggered by Hariri's killing and often wrote pieces for the newspaper critical of Syria.

"It's clear, Syria killed him," said Elias Mukheiber, a lawyer and neighbour. "I'm disgusted."

Other politicians at the site blamed the pro-Syrian regime for the blast which, apart from the car, caused little damage.

Trembling with rage, Elias Atallah, leader of the Democratic Left, charged: "It was (President) Emile Lahud, the head of state, the security forces who killed him."

The "Lebanese-Syrian police regime is still in power and still rampant," said Solange Gemayel, a newly-elected MP and widow of president-elect Bashir Gemayel who himself was killed in a bomb attack in Ashrafiyeh in 1982.

"When will we be able to say this regime has been eliminated?" she asked.

As the debate raged in the streets around the bomb scene, Kassir's body remained pinned inside the still-smoking car, parked beneath the building where he lived with his wife, journalist Gisele Khury, and their two daughters.

"Samir lived all his life in danger. He wrote all his articles against Syria," said his brother Sleimane Kassir, who could barely take his eyes off the charred vehicle.

A security officer approached, took a burned and battered mobile phone out of his pocket and showed it to Sleimane.

"It's his?" the guard asked.

"Yes," the brother sighed.

After the politicians left and the onlookers began to scatter, Kassir's body was extracted from the twisted metal and taken away in an ambulance. A heavy silence fell upon the sun-filled street.

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