8 killed as huge blast rocks Beirut
Source: Agencies |
October 20, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
A HUGE car bomb exploded in central Beirut during rush hour yesterday, killing at least eight people, wounding about 80 and raising fears of renewed sectarian violence in a country still scarred from a long civil war. Among the killed was Lebanon's top security official.
The explosion did not appear to target any political figure in Lebanon's divided community but it occurred at a time of heightened tension between Lebanese factions on opposite sides of the conflict in neighboring Syria.
It ripped through the street where the office of the anti-Damascus Christian Phalange Party is located near Sassine Square in Ashrafiyeh, a mostly Christian area.
Phalange leader Sami al-Gemayel, a staunch opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a member of parliament, condemned the attack. "Let the state protect the citizens. We will not accept any procrastination in this matter, we cannot continue like that. We have been warning for a year. Enough," said Gemayel, whose brother was assassinated in November 2006.
The war in Syria, which has killed 30,000 people, has pitted mostly Sunni insurgents against Assad, who is from the Alawite sect linked to Shiite Islam.
Lebanon's religious communities are divided between those supporting Assad and those backing the rebels trying to overthrow him.
The blast occurred during rush hour, when many parents were picking up children from school, and sent black smoke billowing into the sky. Several cars were destroyed and the front of a multi-story building was badly damaged, with tangled wires and metal railings crashing to the ground.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the government was investigating.
The explosion did not appear to target any political figure in Lebanon's divided community but it occurred at a time of heightened tension between Lebanese factions on opposite sides of the conflict in neighboring Syria.
It ripped through the street where the office of the anti-Damascus Christian Phalange Party is located near Sassine Square in Ashrafiyeh, a mostly Christian area.
Phalange leader Sami al-Gemayel, a staunch opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a member of parliament, condemned the attack. "Let the state protect the citizens. We will not accept any procrastination in this matter, we cannot continue like that. We have been warning for a year. Enough," said Gemayel, whose brother was assassinated in November 2006.
The war in Syria, which has killed 30,000 people, has pitted mostly Sunni insurgents against Assad, who is from the Alawite sect linked to Shiite Islam.
Lebanon's religious communities are divided between those supporting Assad and those backing the rebels trying to overthrow him.
The blast occurred during rush hour, when many parents were picking up children from school, and sent black smoke billowing into the sky. Several cars were destroyed and the front of a multi-story building was badly damaged, with tangled wires and metal railings crashing to the ground.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the government was investigating.
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