residential area of Beirut late Friday, September 16, sending soldiers scrambling to the scene and raising fears of a widening conflict in Lebanon, officials and rescue workers said.
The explosion, which was heared throughout the Lebanese capital, reportedly went off in front of a coffee shop, killing the owner, not far from a branch of Lebanon’s Byblos Bank and a hotel in the area of Achrafieh. In addition to the coffee shop, the apparently powerful explosion also damaged the bank’s office complex, a shopping mall and the hotel, witnesses and reporters said.
"What we lived this night was like hell," Eva Nashleklian told Reuters news agency as she reportedly wiped blood off her arm following the explosion.
Ambulances ferried a dozen wounded people to nearby hospitals, while seven others were lightly injured and did not need urgent treatment, Reuters quoted a Red Cross source as saying. The bomb detonated just before midnight between two cars, Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, commander of the Internal Security Forces, told The Associated Press (AP) news agency.
An Agence France Press (AFP) photographer reported that damage in the area was heavy, with cracks in the walls of the hotel. It was the 10th bomb blast in Beirut since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in February, which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon under pressure of demonstrations.
BOMBS TARGET CHRISTIANS
Several bombs have targeted Christian areas in recent months, some killing or wounding prominent politicians and others hitting public areas and causing panic. The last explosion was July 22 following a surprise visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and caused 12 injuries in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut.
Critics say the violence is supported by an angry Syria, which controlled Lebanon nearly three decades with troops on the ground before it was forced to withdraw. Syria has strongly denied these accusations as well as allegations that it was involved in the assassination of the prime minister.
Security forces cordoned off the area early Saturday, local time, searching for clues as no group immediately claimed responsibility.
UN INVESTIGATION
The blast came just days after a UN investigator reportedly visited Damascus to set up interviews with top Syrian officials over the most notorious of the bomb blasts — a February 14 explosion that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 20 other people.
UN investigators have already accused four senior Lebanese security officials who carried out Syrian policy in the country, news reports said.
It came as a major setback for Christians seeking peace and stability in Lebanon, amid fears that tourism will be effected as well. Witnesses told reporters that firemen and civil defense agents already evacuated guests at the hotel near the blast, including tourists from Gulf Arab countries in their pajamas.
CHURCH CONCERNED
"I don’t know who is behind" [these bombings], but this demonstrates that there are some people who don’t want peace and tranquility for Lebanon," said the head of Lebanon’s Maronite Christians, Nasr Allah Sufai, an influential figure opposed to Syria’s grip on Lebanon in a recent interview.
His denomination has been a target in the past, including in 1999 when at least one person was reportedly killed in a bomb explosion at a Maronite church in the eastern suburbs of Beirut.
Car bombings — 3,641 of them that killed 4,386 people — were a hallmark of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war but have been rare since. Politicians suggested the latest attack has raised fears the country is sliding back into a period comparable to the civil war.
SYRIA BLAMED
Anti-Syrian legislator Michael Pharaoun made clear that "it is for sure a message against stability in Lebanon." He added that it comes before a planned conference on Lebanon in New York Monday, September 19, AP reported..
AP quoted another anti-Syrian legislator as saying that the remains of Syria’s security apparatus were being behind Friday’s blast. "This is a criminal act that comes as part of a series of other criminal acts that Lebanon witnessed," Atef Majdalani reporedly said. "The remains of the Syrian and Lebanese security regime are still present and they are behind this act."
Lebanese authorities have reportedly arrested four former Syrian allies after they were accused in Hariri’s death by the UN investigation. They have been indentified as former General Security chief Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed; Maj. Gen. Ali Hajj, the ex-Internal Security Forces director general; Brig. Gen. Raymond Azar, the former military intelligence chief; and current Presidential Guards commander Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hamdan.
