A huge car bomb has torn through the Shia held Beir el-Abed district of Beirut, wounding scores of people, with Lebanon’s Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil citing 53 separate persons hospitalised so far.
Written by Chris White
No group has as yet assume responsibility for the blast, although rebel fighters active in neighbouring Syria are suspected since having threatened to strike back at Hezbollah’s positions in Lebanon, over the organization’s support for President Bashar al-Assad’s government forces.
The current attack comes just after the detonation of a similar car bomb last Tuesday in the City’s outer suburbs, near an Islamic centre, although last Tuesday’s attack incurred no casualties.
Footage broadcasted from the Hezbollah run TV station al-Manar TV showed dramatic scenes of fire fighters attempting to extinguish the flames, with considerable damage wrought on nearby shops and residential buildings.
Speaking to reporters about what happened a local shop keeper was recorded as saying: “Everyone started panicking. Everyone was running left and right. I can’t believe someone would do this on the first day of Ramadan.”
Rushing to the scene of the attack Lebanon’s interior minister Marwan Charbel warned that the incident was intended to drive a wedge between Lebanon’s Sunni and Shia communities, declaring “this is a message, but we will not bow”.
Commentators allege that continuing events in Syria are placing Lebanon’s fragile peace process in enormous jeopardy and are imploring The West to reconsider its official support for the Islamist rebels in Syria, claiming that this will only bring more instability to the region.
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