Lebanon Mourns Victims of Bomb Attack in Hizbullah Stronghold amid Wave of International Condemnations
Lebanon was holding a day of mourning Friday for 44 people killed in twin bombings on a busy shopping street in southern Beirut, the bloodiest such attack for years which was claimed by the Islamic State group.
Around 239 people were also wounded, many of them seriously, by the explosions in a narrow shopping street in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood that is a bastion of the Hizbullah movement.
The attack appeared to mark a return to the campaign against the group between 2013 and 2014, ostensibly in revenge for its military support of regime forces in neighboring Syria's civil war.
Two men wearing suicide vests carried out the attack, said the army, while the body of a third who had failed to detonate his explosive device was found at the scene of the second blast.
Schools and universities will be shut across Lebanon on Friday after Prime Minister Tammam Salam announced a national day of mourning, local media reported.
The street is normally home to a market, was stained red with blood according to an Agence France Presse photographer, who saw bodies inside nearby shops.
Surrounding buildings were badly damaged by the blasts and security forces were trying to cordon off the scene and keep people from gathering.
Sunni jihadist group IS claimed the attack, saying its "soldiers of the Caliphate" detonated explosives planted on a motorbike on the street, in an online statement.
"After the apostates gathered in the area, one of the knights of martyrdom detonated his explosive belt in the midst of them," the statement added, without referring to Hizbullah's involvement in Syria, much of which is under IS control.
The statement could not be independently verified, but it followed the usual format of IS claims of responsibility and was circulated on jihadist online accounts.
The wounded were evacuated to several hospitals in the area, including the Bahman hospital in neighboring Haret Hreik.
"We've received dozens of wounded people and they're continuing to arrive," a doctor there told AFP.
World leaders condemned the bombings, which French President Francois Hollande called "despicable".
The White House offered its condolences for what it described as the "horrific terrorist attacks", vowing that "such acts of terror only reinforce our commitment to support the institutions of the Lebanese state".
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called on Lebanon to "not allow this despicable act to destroy the relative calm that has prevailed in the country over the past year".
Moscow said “the attack in Beirut stresses the need to form a regional and international front to combat terrorism.”
Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the bombing, reiterating “support for the Lebanese state and its people.”
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon offered its condolences.
UNIFIL in Naqoura drew their flags at half-mast in mourning of the victims of the bombings.
The attacks were the deadliest to hit a Hizbullah stronghold since the group entered Syria's civil war in support of President Bashar Assad.
Between July 2013 and February 2014, there were nine attacks on Hizbullah throughout Lebanon, mostly claimed by extremist groups.
Despite ostensibly targeting Hizbullah, the victims of the attacks have been overwhelmingly civilians.
The deadliest in southern Beirut was in 2013, when 27 people were killed by a car bomb in the Rweiss district.
The attacks were claimed by several different groups, but all cited Hizbullah's role in the conflict in Syria.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://naharnet.com/stories/en/194305 |