Bombing Aimed at Hezbollah Hits Southern Beirut

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: New York Times

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A powerful explosion hit the southern suburbs of Beirut on Thursday afternoon in a mixed neighborhood populated by many supporters of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia and political party. It appeared to be the latest in a series of bombings and reprisal bombings over the civil war in neighboring Syria, where Hezbollah has sent fighters to aid government forces and its opponents support the insurgency.

Lebanese television showed scenes of chaos in a residential area, with smoke rising above charred cars, crowds of people pushing past one another and ambulances and fire trucks arriving. At least six people were killed and more than 40 wounded.

The blast came six days after a car bomb killed a prominent member of the Future bloc, the Sunni party that is Hezbollah’s main political rival. And it came a day after reports surfaced of the arrest by Lebanese authorities of a Saudi militant who leads the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a group affiliated with Al Qaeda that claimed responsibility for a November suicide bombing at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. Iran is an ally of Hezbollah.

The recent bombings, which have primarily killed civilians and instilled fear across Lebanon, are part of a string of escalating attacks in recent months related to the nearly three-year-old conflict in Syria, which has deepened Lebanon’s pre-existing political and sectarian divisions. Hezbollah’s fighters have been helping the Syrian army, and the Future bloc endorses the insurgency, which Lebanese Sunni militants have crossed the border to join.

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/03/world/middleeast/Beirut-Hezbollah-explosion.html?_r=0

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The war of the Takfiris rages from Beirut to Damascus to Baghdad.

[Alamuti Lotus]

1. updates from al-Akhbar--lowered deaths, nearly doubled injuries

Updated 10:30 pm: An apparent suicide bomber detonated a car rigged with explosives in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Thursday, killing at least four people and injuring 77, the health ministry said.

Sixty-seven people were treated in hospitals for minor wounds and released, while 10 people remained hospitalized for severe injuries, the ministry statement added.

Thursday's explosion, the fourth such bombing in Beirut's southern suburbs known as Dahiyeh since July 2013, took place on al-Arid Street in the neighborhood of Haret Hreik. The attack appeared to target civilians in the densely populated neighborhood packed with shops, clothing stores and restaurants.

Officials at the Bahman Hospital said they recovered the remains of who is believed to be a suicide bomber.

"The target is clear. It's the [Lebanese] people. This type of terrorism attacks all parts of Lebanon, no matter their political orientation...The target is Lebanon, all of Lebanon," Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah told Al Jadeed televeion.

"We're not going to blame anyone yet. We have to wait for the investigation. But whoever was behind the explosion that killed Mohammed Shatah, and whoever did this, we put them in the same category. These are terrorist acts," MP Bilal Farhat, also from Hezbollah, told television reporters from the site of the blast.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/18093