Suicide car bomb hits Beirut
June 24, 2014
The explosion happened around midnight local time on Tuesday (2100 UTC Monday) near an army checkpoint in a mainly Shiite Muslim district of southern Beirut. Lebanon's civil defense force said the blast killed the bomber and wounded at least a dozen more people.
Windows in nearby buildings were shattered by the blast that also hit near a cafe where football fans were watching a World Cup match. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.
The area of south Beirut has been the target of attacks for many months as it is a stronghold of Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah. Many of the attacks have been claimed by Sunni extremists who blamed the Shiite movement for sending fighters into neighboring Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
On Friday a suicide attack in the east of the country near the Syrian border killed one person and wounded at least 30. The attack also narrowly missed killing the head of Lebanon's General Security department, Major General Abbas Ibrahim.
hc/jm (Reuters, AFP)