2 Hurt as Suicide Bomber Blows Up Passenger Van in Shwaifat
A suicide bomber blew himself up Monday inside a passenger van in the Shwaifat area, south of Beirut, leaving two people wounded, including the minibus driver.
Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said a suicide bomber entered the passenger van minutes before the explosion.
"A man wearing an explosive belt boarded a public minibus in Shwaifat and blew himself up," Charbel told al-Mayadeen television channel.
According to state-run National News Agency, the explosion went off inside the van near the al-Rishani gas station.
It said the van driver and owner Hussein Dib Msheik was critically wounded while a woman identified as Amal al-Ahmadiyeh was also injured in the explosion. The two were rushed to the Kamal Jumblat Hospital for treatment.
Red Cross communications director Ayad Monzer confirmed the attacker was killed in the latest blast, and two others were wounded.
"The bomber was killed, and two others were injured. A man, who is in critical condition, and a woman with moderate injuries," he told Agence France Presse.
"A white van carrying a license plate with the number 375121/M was passing on the Shwaifat road when it exploded," OTV said.
"The Hyundai van that exploded is registered in the name of a man from the Msheik family and it was carrying a genuine red license plate," LBCI TV said.
Ali Msheik said on LBCI TV that his brother Hussein was the man injured in the blast and had been driving the minibus.
"When the bomber got on, he noticed that his stomach area looked bulky and asked him about it, then the bomber detonated his explosives," he said.
He told the channel that his brother was undergoing surgery in a nearby hospital after surviving the attack.
Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) said the driver usually transports passengers from Shwaifat to Dahiyeh.
Quoting Red Cross sources, al-Mayadeen said "human remains belonging to one person were found at the Shwaifat blast scene and three wounded people were rushed to hospitals."
"Security forces are interrogating a taxi driver who shuttled the suicide bomber to the al-Rishani gas station in Shwaifat," LBCI reported.
Meanwhile, security sources told MTV that "the bomb was not big but it contained metallic balls aimed at causing major damage."
Later on Monday, the army announced that the suicide bomber used “a belt containing five kilograms of explosives.”
State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr asked the relevant authorities to start probing the blast, tasking a doctor to conduct DNA tests in a bid to identify the suicide bomber.
Shwaifat lies south of Beirut, not far from the suburbs of the city, which have been targeted in multiple bomb attacks in recent months.
Footage from the scene broadcast on Lebanese TV stations showed the mangled remains of a vehicle surrounded by shards of glass and other material in the middle of the road.
The blast comes after at least four people were killed in a suicide bombing on Saturday in the Bekaa town of Hermel, where Hizbullah has widespread support.
Lebanon has been hit by a string of bomb attacks in recent months, many targeting areas sympathetic to Hizbullah which has dispatched fighters to battle alongside the Syrian regime against rebels seeking to oust President Bashar Assad.
Extremist jihadist groups believed to be linked to those fighting in Syria have claimed responsibility for most of the attacks, saying they will continue for as long as Hizbullah fights in Syria.
But while the blasts have apparently targeted the group, the victims of the attacks have been almost exclusively civilians.
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