Lebanese mourn slain Gemayel

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Lebanon began three days of mourning Wednesday for assassinated Maronite Christian Cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel who was gunned down a day earlier.

The coffin containing the body of the 34-year-old industry minister was carried through his home village of Bikfaya, east of Beirut, on Wednesday as mourners wept and threw flowers and rice toward it, the BBC reported.

Gemayel, a vocal critic of Syria's influence over Lebanon, was ambushed Tuesday in a Beirut Christian suburb by at least three gunmen who rammed his small gray car and fired numerous shots into it. He died soon after in a hospital.

Local media were quick to suggest Syria was behind the killing but Damascus denied involvement and condemned the shooting.

Independence Day -- Lebanon was declared independent on Nov. 22, 1943 -- celebrations were canceled throughout the country Wednesday and security was heightened as well, the report said.

Tuesday night, Gemayel's father, former President Amin Gemayel, asked his son's supporters to remain calm and refrain from any actions that might cause further strife, the Lebanon Daily Star reported.