Explosion in Tripoli kills 4, injures 30
The blast hits a bus carrying Lebanese soldiers. Civilians are also among the casualties.
BEIRUT -- A car-bomb explosion struck a bus filled with Lebanese soldiers in the northern seaside city of Tripoli today, killing at least four people and wounding 30, including civilians, a Lebanese security official said.
The bombing was the latest in a series of recent attacks in Lebanon and Syria that have unsettled the region. Syrian officials today suggested evidence pointed to Islamic groups in Lebanon for a deadly weekend car-bomb explosion in Damascus.
Lebanese television stations today aired footage of charred automobiles, blood stains on the pavement, tiny pieces of metal and burned human flesh at the scene of the Tripoli explosion. Soldiers could be seen scrambling to cordon off the scene of the blast, which took place during the morning rush hour, between 7 and 8 a.m. Interior Minister Ziad Baroud summoned security officials for an emergency meeting.
At least three soldiers died in today's blast, which came seven weeks after a bomb killed 12 people, nine of them soldiers, aboard another bus in the northern city. That attack coincided with newly elected Lebanese President Michel Suleiman's historic trip to Syria, a visit strongly opposed by many Sunni radicals who despise Syrian President Bashar Assad's secular government.
Analysts said the timing of today's attack suggested it was meant to derail confidence in the government and army just as Lebanon's squabbling religious communities have begun to come together to ease tensions on streets ahead of critical elections next spring.
The explosion came hours before parliament was to convene to discuss a new electoral law meant to improve the performance of a weak central government. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora oversaw the signing of an agreement earlier this month meant to halt sporadic fighting between Sunni Muslims and members of Lebanon's Alawite sect in and near Tripoli.
Lebanon's Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Druze agreed over the weekend to rip down provocative posters and political propaganda in a move aimed at cooling political tempers that brought the country to the brink of civil war last May.
"The party behind the explosion is sending a message to the Lebanese army stating that even such a national force that all Lebanese consider to be a symbol of unity could easily be made vulnerable," Rached Fayyad, an analyst for the Lenanese newspaper An-Nahar told Al Arabiya television in an interview broadcast after the blast.
