Beirut blast kills three, injures 22

An explosion apparently targeting a U.S. vehicle convoy today killed three civilians and injured at least 22 others, including several employees of the American Embassy in Lebanon, officials and witnesses said.

No Americans were among the dead or injured, said the embassy.

The explosion took place around 4:30 p.m. in a poor and mostly industrial area near the city’s docks on a stretch of road often used to bypass traffic on a parallel highway. The powerful blast sent the wounded screaming and flung shattered glass for hundreds of yards around. Ambulances screeched to and from the bomb site as twilight settled.

“I heard a very powerful sound and ran into the street to look for my father,” said 17-year-old Rabih Boutros, among the residents living in a tightly packed warren of three- and four-story buildings near the blast site. “I saw cars burned. There were people with blood on their faces. I saw people running and screaming.”

A high-ranking Lebanese security official said an the explosive charge had been placed inside a parked car. Two of the dead were Lebanese civilians in another passing vehicle and one was a pedestrian of Syrian nationality, likely a guest worker, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Both of the injured people in the U.S. convoy were Lebanese.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and Lebanese officials said they were not sure whether the bombing was directed at Americans. But Lebanese say that U.S. officials travel in high-profile convoys of Chevrolet Suburban SUVs and often use the road to bypass traffic above.

“I see them all the time passing here,” said Mohammed Darwiche, a blacksmith whose shop was thrown into disarray by the bombing. “American Embassy convoys are distinctive. They have tinted windows, and they have bodyguards pointing weapons.”

The attack was the latest in a mysterious string of bombings, many targeting prominent figures in the country, since the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Last month a bomb killed Brig. Gen. Antoine Hajj, a high-ranking Lebanese army official.

The country’s political life has been paralyzed by a fight for power between the pro-U.S. government and the opposition, which is led by Hezbollah, the Iranian and Syrian-backed Shiite Muslim militia.

Lebanon has also had to contend with Sunni Muslim militants inspired by Al Qaeda who fought the army in months-long clashes last summer. The group Fatah al Islam, led by the charismatic Sheik Shaker Abbsi, has vowed to continue attacks against the U.S.-backed government.

daragahi@latimes.com

Special correspondent Raed Rafei contributed to this report.