Relatives and friends carry the coffins of slain anti-Syrian lawmaker Antoine Ghanem, center, and his bodyguards during their funeral procession Friday in Beirut, Lebanon. Family, comrades and supporters marched in a mass funeral procession for the slain Lebanese lawmaker.

Beirut, Lebanon ? An assassinated anti-Syrian lawmaker was buried Friday, mourned as the latest Lebanese martyr by hundreds of marchers as the parliament prepared to meet next week to elect a new president.

The funeral of Antoine Ghanem, who was killed by a bomb Wednesday, was the latest in what has become a depressing routine for Lebanon in the past two years: crowds marching behind a flag-draped casket, carrying the same banners and shouting the same angry words against the leadership in Damascus.

The car bombing in Beirut’s Christian neighborhood of Sin el-Fil also killed Ghanem’s bodyguard and driver, and three passers-by, while 67 people were wounded. No one has claimed responsibility.

Ghanem, 64, of the right-wing Phalange Party, is the eighth political personality to be killed in a wave of assassinations against anti-Syrian figures that began with the bombing death of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005.

“Are we, in the Phalange Party, destined to eulogize our martyrs?” asked former President Amin Gemayel, whose son, Pierre, was assassinated by gunmen in 2006.

“Are we destined to shed tears for yet another martyr?” he added, speaking to the gathering at the Maronite Catholic funeral service inside Sacred Heart Church.

While Gemayel left open the possibility of reconciliation among Lebanon’s bitterly divided factions, the crowd outside was less inclined toward tolerance.

A small group of youths shouted obscenities about Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. A bigger crowd vented anger at Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is accused of being behind the killings.

“Bashar, Bashar, you’re next,” the group chanted.

Wisam Silfani, a 23-year-old university student with the hard-line Christian Lebanese Forces cautioned that the slogans against Hezbollah did not necessarily mean they blamed the powerful Shiite Muslim group for the assassinations.

“It’s a reaction to the killings,” said Silfani, carrying a huge flag of his party. He noted that during the civil war, his group had shouted worse slogans against the part of Druse leader Walid Jumblatt.

“Now we are allies,” he said. “The same could happen with Hezbollah one day, so you shouldn’t take these slogans too seriously.”

But Sarah Abu Rjeily, 19, was less forgiving, saying Hezbollah’s alliance with Syria, which she claimed was behind the assassinations, made it difficult to reconcile.

“Let’s face it, all the martyrs have been Christians,” she said. Legislator Walid Eido, slain in a June bombing, was the only Muslim among the anti-Syrian figures to be killed.

Lebanon’s governing coalition accuses Syria of orchestrating the assassinations to scuttle the upcoming presidential election and erode its parliamentary majority. Damascus denies involvement in any of the killings.

There had been hopes that the presidential vote could break a 10-month-old political deadlock between Lebanon’s U.S.-backed government and pro-Syrian opposition factions led by Hezbollah.

That hope has diminished with Ghanem’s death.

While Gemayel left the door open for dialogue, he said a new president should embody the sacrifices of those who were slain.

“Your martyrdom, Antoine, is a new incentive to hold the presidential elections no matter what happens,” Gemayel said in his eulogy.