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(CNN) -- Mohamad Chatah, a former Lebanese finance minister and ambassador to the United States, died Friday when a car bomb struck his convoy in downtown Beirut, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.
The blast killed five others and left 71 wounded, Lebanon's health ministry said. Cars were burned beyond recognition as a wall of flames and thick black smoke shot up from the blast site.
Chatah's bodyguard, Mohammed Badr, was among those killed, the news agency said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Chatah's last tweet, posted about an hour before his death, talked about Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based Shiite militant group with which Chatah was at odds.
"#Hezbollah is pressing hard to be granted similar powers in security & foreign policy matters that Syria exercised in Lebanon for 15 yrs," Chatah tweeted.
That group decried the attack in a statement aired on Hezbollah TV, saying the it "only benefits the enemies of Lebanon."
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