Suicide bombings target Iranian site in Beirut

Two suicide car bombs targeted an Iranian cultural center in Beirut on Wednesday, killing six people in the latest attack linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria.

The attack was quickly claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a jihadist group inspired by al-Qaida that previously claimed a double suicide bombing aimed at Iran's embassy in Beirut.

Beijing on Thursday condemned the twin bombings. "China strongly condemns the terrorist attacks and is firmly against all forms of terrorism," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a routine news conference.

China supports the Lebanese side in safeguarding its peace and stability, Hua said, urging all parties to serve the same aim.

Jihadists have carried out a string of attacks in Lebanon targeting both Iran and the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah, which provide vital support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government as it battles a Sunni-led rebellion.

The Lebanese health ministry said six people were killed and 129 others wounded, with the army saying one of the cars was loaded with 90 kg of explosives and the other with 75 kg.

The blast set cars and trees ablaze and shattered the windows of nearby buildings. Mangled metal hung from a smashed building that once held a pharmacy, a clothing shop and a well-known sweet shop, Gondoline. Blood and tattered clothes were on the ground amid the charred remains of six cars.

"I thought it was an earthquake," said Sam Hasna, a Lebanese-Canadian citizen and owner of Gondoline. "Everything was on fire. The whole store had crashed down. I saw shattered people, shattered cars, and I collapsed."

According to official media, a policeman was among the dead.

The blasts in the capital's southern district of Bir Hassan sent a large plume of smoke over the area and caused widespread damage.

Emergency teams carried wounded people away from a charred street strewn with rubble, as local residents armed with fire extinguishers helped firefighters put out blazes.

Children wounded

"I was driving my car with my wife to the university when we were hit by the force of the blast and I found pieces of human flesh on my face," said Yousef al-Tawil, a professor at the Lebanese University.

Dozens of children at a nearby orphanage witnessed the explosion, some cut by flying debris. Bewildered in the chaotic aftermath, many were crying.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an al-Qaida-inspired group, claimed the "double martyrdom operation" on Twitter and pledged to continue its attacks against Iran and "its party" - a reference to Hezbollah.

"We will continue ... to target Iran and its party in Lebanon, in its security and political and military centers, until our demands are achieved," the group said.

"First: that the Party of Iran (Hezbollah) withdraws its forces from Syria. Second, that our prisoners are released from Lebanese prisons."

Hezbollah acknowledged last year that it has dispatched forces to bolster Assad's troops against the civil conflict that began in March 2011.

Wednesday's bombings underlined the challenges facing Lebanon's new government, formed at the weekend after a 10-month political vacuum.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam condemned the attack, saying it was a "message reflecting the determination of the forces of evil to harm Lebanon and its children and sow discord".

"The message has been received and we will respond to it with solidarity and commitment to civil accord and rallying around our army and our security forces," he said in a statement.

US Ambassador David Hale, condemned the attacks as "abhorrent", and British Minister of State for the Middle East Hugh Robertson said "such criminal and callous attacks cannot be allowed to destabilize the country and the wider region".

For its part, Iran's foreign ministry blamed "agents" of Hezbollah's archenemy Israel.

AP-AFP

Lebanese emergency personnel work at the site of a bomb explosion in a southern suburb of the capital Beirut on Wednesday. Twin bomb blasts appeared to target the Iranian cultural center, and six people were killed. Provided by Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 02/21/2014 page11)