Michel Aoun, the Lebanese Christian leader, has launched a scathing attack on Syria's exiled former vice-president, accusing him of bearing responsibility for a string of assassinations. On Saturday, Aoun called on Abdel-Halim Khaddam, an ex-Baath Party stalwart turned whistleblower who last month implicated Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, in the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, to publicly explain the killings. "Khaddam was for a long time responsible for the Lebanese file, and during the time that he was responsible there were many very unfortunate events which were similar to Hariri's assassination," Aoun told Dubai television. Long the architect of Syria's military and political domination of neighbouring Lebanon, Khaddam was entrusted with the Lebanese file during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. "There were the (assassinations) of two presidents of the republic, Bashir Gemayel and Rene Moawad, and there was the (Sunni) mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled, MP Nazem Al-Qadri ... and Kamal Jumblatt," said Aoun. Aoun, who returned to Lebanon in May 2005 after 15 years in exile in France, added: "We had hoped that he would recall those days and let us know how these events took place."