BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — A massive bomb tore through the motorcade of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who resigned last fall following a sharp dispute with Syria, killing him and at least nine other people yesterday.

About 100 people were also wounded in the assassination, which raised immediate fears that Lebanon would be plunged into a new cycle of violence.

Hariri, who left office in October, had the wealth and the prominence to maintain some independence without defying Lebanon’s main power broker, Syria, which keeps about 15,000 troops in the country and influences virtually all key political decisions.

At least 20 cars were set on fire in a blast that damaged a British bank and the landmark Phoenicia Hotel along the Mediterranean waterfront.

The 12:55 p.m. (5:55 a.m. EST) explosion was so powerful that Hariri’s motorcade of bulletproof vehicles was left a burning wreck and a 30-foot crater was gouged in the street.

More than 650 pounds of TNT explosives were used in the bombing, security officials said on condition of anonymity. They did not say whether the explosives were placed in a vehicle or on the side of the street.

There were no credible claims of responsibility, although a previously unknown group, calling itself Support and Jihad in Syria and Lebanon, said it had carried out the bombing. It said the attack was a suicide operation and would be followed by more attacks “against infidels, renegades and tyrants.” The claim, which could not be authenticated, appeared in a video aired on Al-Jazeera satellite television.

Former Economy Minister Bassel Fleihan, a member of parliament in Hariri’s bloc, was severely wounded and admitted to the intensive care unit of the American University Hospital, said another pro-Hariri legislator, Atef Majdalani. Hariri’s own Future TV reported that Fleihan was in critical condition and the hospital was preparing to transfer him abroad.

Hariri, 60, had moved toward the opposition camp after leaving office in October. Hariri had rejected a Syrian-backed insistence that a rival politician, President Emile Lahoud, remain in office as president for a longer period.

Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, served 10 of 14 years in the postwar period starting in 1992. His assassination removes a main political buffer in a country divided among an opposition strongly opposed to Syria’s role, and the pro-Syrian government camp.

Under Hariri, European investment in Lebanon had been rebounding in recent years, and tourists, particularly from the Arab world and to a lesser extent Europe, also have been coming back to the rebuilt country.

The White House paid tribute to Hariri as a man who “worked tirelessly to rebuild a free, independent and prosperous Lebanon.”

“This murder today is a terrible reminder that the Lebanese people must be able to pursue their aspirations and determine their own political future, free from violence, and intimidation and free from Syrian occupation,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said he “condemned this horrible criminal action,” according to SANA, Syria’s official news agency. Assad urged the Lebanese people to reject those who plant “schism among the people” during this “critical situation.”

In Paris, Lebanon’s most prominent exile, former army commander Gen. Michel Aoun, blamed Syria for the bombing and what he called the “feeble regime imposed by Syria” for the assassination.

“I think all these together are behind this crime,” Aoun told Al-Arabiya TV, which is based in Dubai.

French President Jacques Chirac, a friend of Hariri, condemned the attack and demanded an international investigation, saying he represented “the indefatigable will of independence, freedom and democracy” for Lebanon.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier suggested that the democratic process was the real target of the attack.

“What is targeted is probably the democratic process and the political process that must be undertaken” in Lebanon, Barnier said in an apparent reference to upcoming elections there.

Lebanon’s Supreme Council for Defense instructed the army and internal security forces “to take all necessary measures to control the security situation.” The council, which groups the president, Cabinet ministers and military officials, declared three days of national mourning.

President Emile Lahoud, a longtime rival of Hariri, called the killing “a dark point in our national history.” He promised the perpetrators would be brought to justice.