BEIRUT, Dec 12: A top Lebanese army officer and his bodyguard were killed on Wednesday in a powerful car bomb that further destabilised the country as it grapples with a presidential vacuum.

A military spokesman told AFP that Brigadier General Francois El-Hajj, head of army operations, and his bodyguard were killed in the blast as their car drove through the suburb of Baabda, where the presidential palace and several embassies are located.

Officials said Hajj, 54, was targeted because he was tipped to become the new army commander-in-chief, replacing General Michel Sleiman, frontrunner to become Lebanon’s next president.

Sleiman’s election, however, has been blocked by a standoff between pro- and anti-Syrian camps that has left the country without a president since Nov 23 when incumbent Emile Lahoud ended his term with no successor.

Wednesday’s attack was the first of its kind against the Lebanese military, seen as a unifying force in a country mired in its worst political crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing which followed a string of political assassinations over the past three years.

An army spokesman said the blast involved a 35-kilo bomb in a car. It detonated just after 7am (0500 GMT) as Hajj was heading to the nearby defence ministry.—AFP