Car bomb in Beirut kills five, wounds 75

[Valin]

The Daily Star:

1/2/14

 

 

BEIRUT: Five people were killed and 75 others were wounded Thursday when a car bomb ripped through a neighborhood of the Beirut southern suburbs where Hezbollah enjoys broad support, security sources told The Daily Star.

 

The car bombing in Haret Hreik, a densely populated neighborhood of the southern suburb, is the latest security incident to hit increasingly volatile Lebanon. The attacks are linked to the ongoing crisis in Syria, particularly Hezbollahs military support there to President Bashar Assad.

 

The 4.15 p.m. blast caused plumes of black smoke to blanket the Beirut skyline as ambulances and paramedics rushed to the neighborhood.

 

[Valin]

Was Thursdays Beirut blast linked to Sidon attack?

A security source said that Thursdays explosion in Beirut may have been prepared in a hurry and may be linked to the attack on a Lebanese army checkpoint in Sidon on Dec. 15, 2013.

Jean Aziz, Rani Geha

1/2/13

 

A security source told Al-Monitor that three indicators suggest that the explosion that shook Beiruts southern suburbs on Thursday afternoon (Jan. 2) might be linked to Lebanese army intelligence arresting a leading al-Qaeda official, Saudi citizen Majid bin Mohammad al-Majid, in Lebanon.

 

The source, who preferred to remain anonymous, explained that the reasons for this belief were as follows: First, the attack came about five days after Majids arrest and less than 48 hours after Saudi and US sources confirmed his arrest. Second, the explosion was likely caused by a relatively small bomb, not by a large car bomb. Third, the explosion happened on the edge of the southern suburbs, not in its heart, and at 400 meters (437 yards) from the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj el-Barajneh, which is adjacent to the capital, Beirut, and to the densely populated Shiite area targeted by the blast.

 

Those three factors, according to the security source, indicate that the party behind the explosion prepared the bomb quickly and that the car was booby-trapped in a hurry. There was not enough time for a large bomb to be prepared. More importantly, the urgency to commit the crime forced the car to be parked close to the place where it was likely prepared. That links the arrest of the Saudi terrorist, who hid for a while in the Ain al-Hilweh camp in southern Lebanon, with jihadist groups hiding in some Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and with the fact that the explosion happened near one of these camps.

 

(Snip)