Iman Chairman expresses horror at Lebanese bomb attacks
Domingo, 18 Agosto 2013
Mourners pray over the body of victim Hamad al-Moqdad
Death toll from Beirut car bombing climbs to 27
Associated Press
17 AUGUST 2013
The death toll from a car bombing that ripped through a Beirut stronghold of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah has risen to at least 27, the health ministry said Saturday.
The toll is the highest in Lebanon since a massive car bomb attack on the Beirut seafront killed then prime minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others in February 2005.
"At least 27 people died and 336 others were wounded in the car bomb attack that targeted the Rweiss neighbourhood on Thursday," the office of Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said.
An earlier toll on Friday said at least 22 people had been killed when an explosives packed car blew up in the densely populated mostly-Shiite district in Beirut's southern suburbs.
But Khalil's office said three people died of their injuries overnight Friday while two more bodies were found, raising the death toll.
A previously unknown group, the Battalion of Aisha, said it carried out the attack because of Hezbollah's involvement in the Syria war.
"You, the pig Hassan Nasrallah, we send you our second powerful message because you haven't understood yet," a member of the group said referring to the head of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is a key supporter of President Bashar al-Assad and has sent fighters across the border to Syria this year to bolster government forces, which have been battling a deadly anti-regime revolt since March 2011.
A defiant Nasrallah said on Friday he himself was ready to go and fight in Syria, and accused radical Sunni takfiri Muslims of being responsible for the car bombing.
Lebanon is deeply divided into supporters and opponents of the regime in neighbouring Syria and the conflict now in its third year has stoked sectarian tensions and violence in the country.
Also on Saturday, the Syrian opposition National Coalition warned against a "cycle of violence" in Lebanon if Hezbollah continues to send fighters to help the Damascus regime.
"We have repeatedly warned the head of Hezbollah against siding with the Assad regime in killing Syrian people but he continues to be involved in the regime's crimes," said the group.
"This situation if it continues will push Lebanon into a cycle of violence that will serve Israeli interests," it added in a statement.
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Lebanese city of Tripoli rocked by deadly explosions
BBC NEWS
23 AUGUST, 2013
At least 42 people have been killed and more than 400 wounded in two huge bomb attacks in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli.
The blasts, near mosques, are thought to be the deadliest attack in Lebanon since the end of the civil war in 1990.
War in neighbouring Syria has raised sectarian tensions between the city's Sunni Muslim and Alawite communities.
The blasts came a week after a car bomb in a Shia district of the capital Beirut killed 27 people.
Prominent Sunni Muslim cleric Sheikh Salem Rafii could have been the intended target of the latest attacks, BBC Arabic reports from Beirut. He was unharmed.
Local television channels here are showing dramatic security camera footage from inside the al-Salam mosque. At 12:16, as worshippers were sitting quietly inside listening to the preacher, a powerful explosion shakes the building.
Since the uprising against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011, there has been concern that violence could spill across the border and exacerbate Lebanon's sectarian divisions.
Now there is growing evidence that is happening.
The latest attacks will increase tensions in Tripoli between the Sunni Muslim majority, which supports opposition fighters in Syria, and its Alawite community that remains loyal to the Syrian president.
These blasts come exactly a week after a bombing in southern Beirut killed more than 20 people. The suburbs hit in that attack were a stronghold of the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, that is also allied with the Syrian government.
These are worrying times for the Lebanese.
The cleric is opposed to Lebanon's militant Shia Hezbollah group and has previously urged young Lebanese men to join opposition fighters in Syria.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the attacks and called for calm and restraint. Meanwhile the UN Security Council called for "people to preserve national unity".
The first bomb hit the al-Taqwa mosque shortly after Friday prayers ended. Minutes later, the second blast struck the al-Salam mosque in the Mina area.
It is not clear if Sheikh Salem Rafii was at the al-Taqwa mosque, although some reports say he was giving a sermon.
In a TV interview after the blast he called for restraint. "We do not want to destroy the country. We want to safeguard the country and preserve Tripoli and its people," he said.
"We should not rush towards reacting. God willing, there is enough time to hold consultations, investigate the matter and know the results."
'Like an earthquake'
Ambulances rushed to the scene of the blasts and a pall of black smoke covered the area.
"It was as if there was an earthquake, the whole city seemed to be shaking," a local resident told Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper.
Television pictures showed cars on fire and people trying to carry the wounded to safety.
Bodies could be seen on the ground and windows were broken on surrounding apartment blocks.
preacher at the al-Salam mosque - the site of the second explosion - is also an opponent of the Syrian government and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, Associated Press reports.
No group has said it carried out the latest attacks.
Outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and President Michel Suleiman also condemned the attacks, calling on citizens to unite against violence.
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: "The secretary-general calls on all Lebanese to exercise restraint, to remain united, and to support their state institutions... in maintaining calm and order in Tripoli and throughout the country, and in preventing the recurrence of such destructive actions."
In a statement, the UN Security Council "appealed to all Lebanese people to preserve national unity in the face of attempts to undermine the country's stability".
The council "stressed the importance for all Lebanese parties to... refrain from any involvement in the Syrian crisis".
Tripoli, a city of nearly 200,000 people and Lebanon's second largest, is one of the country's most volatile sectarian fault lines, with a small Alawite population living in the midst of a Sunni majority.
The Alawite community tends to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with Sunnis mostly backing the rebels fighting him.
The bombs come a week after a massive car bomb rocked a Shia district of Beirut, leaving 27 people dead. The area hit contained Hezbollah strongholds.
Commenting on hearing the news, Chairman of the Iman Foundation, Ribal Al-Assad said:
“I am appalled to hear of these most recent attacks in Lebanon with so many innocent lives lost - it is abominable for individuals to be murdered or maimed because of their faith, belief, colour, creed, ethnicity or gender.
Sectarian violence solves nothing and leads nowhere – it is wanton destruction based on a perverted and heinous ideology. The people who commit these attacks have no concept of the sanctity of life and will seemingly commit any atrocity to realise their radical agenda.
We must stand robustly against such individuals, there is no place for extremism in society and those who incite such violence should be held to account for their actions.
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families at this time.”
