Bomb explosion kills 14 in Beirut
Print Edition
At least 14 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in a massive car bomb attack yesterday in a Hezbollah stronghold of Beirut, the national news agency NNA said.
“Preliminary reports say the bodies of 10 people ... were taken to Sahel hospital, as well as 42 wounded, while four bodies... and 100 wounded were taken to Rasul al-Aazam hospital,” it said.
NNA, quoting security sources, said another 50 wounded were taken to other hospitals.
The blast, a month after a car bomb wounded more than 50 people in the same district of the Lebanese capital, came amid sectarian tensions over the intervention of Shiite Muslim Hezbollah against Sunni rebels in Syria’s civil war.
The blast engulfed several vehicles in flames and nearby buildings were damaged in the explosion.
Residents of southern Beirut say Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, was on high alert and stepped up security in the area after warnings from Syria rebels of possible retaliation for the group’s support for President Bashar al-Assad.
It was not immediately known whether the explosion targeted any Hezbollah figure but it took place in a crowded residential area.
“I don’t know what happened. It’s as if we were struck by an earthquake,” one young man said, bleeding from a wound to his stomach.
At the heart of the site, where fires still raged almost an hour after the blast, the twisted remains of a large van could be seen.
Many cars were damaged in the explosion and the blast sent black smoke over the densely populated area. The facades of several residential buildings were damaged. Charred bodies were seen inside cars caught in the explosion.
Al Mayadeen television said some people were still trapped inside apartments at the scene, close to the Sayyed al-Shuhadaa (Martyrs) complex, where Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah often addresses his followers.
Hezbollah supporters immediately put up a security cordon around the area, witnesses said.
“I heard a huge explosion. It threw me several meters,” said a woman in her 50s who said she had been talking to her brother in his shop.
“I don’t know what happened to my brother. I can’t find him,” she said, bleeding from wounds to hands and face.
Syria’s conflagration has spread to Lebanon, where outbreaks of fighting reflect renewed sectarian tension.
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