Suicide attack at Lebanese cafe kills at least seven

[Valin]

Asharq Al-Awsat/Reuters:

Al-Nusra Front claims responsibility for attack in Lebanon's second-largest city

 

Lebanese Army soldiers inspect a cafe where a suicide bomb attack took place in Jabal Mohsen, Tripoli, on January 11, 2015. (REUTERS/Omar Ibrahim)

 

Tripoli, Reuters—A suicide bomb attack on a cafe in the Lebanese city of Tripoli killed at least seven people on Saturday, the latest violence to hit a region repeatedly buffeted by violence linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria.

 

The Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s official affiliate in the Syrian civil war, said it carried out the double suicide attack in the predominantly Alawite district of Jabal Mohsen “in revenge for the Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon.” The statement appeared on a Twitter feed operated by the group’s media arm.

 

Lebanon’s National News Agency gave the names of two suicide attackers it said were from Tripoli, an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim city whose long-standing sectarian tensions have been exacerbated by the Syrian civil war.

 

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the attack killed seven people. Other officials put the death toll at nine. Three dozen people were wounded.

 

(Snip)