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Deadly Beirut blasts hit Hezbollah stronghold Beirut attacks: Suicide bombers kill dozens in Hezbollah stronghold
(about 1 hour later)
At least 37 people have been killed and 181 injured in two explosions in the Lebanese capital Beirut, officials say. At least 37 people have been killed and 181 wounded in two suicide bomb attacks in a residential area of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, officials say.
The blasts hit the southern suburb of Burj el-Barajneh, a stronghold of the Shia Hezbollah movement. The bombers blew themselves up in a busy street in the southern suburb of Burj al-Barajneh, a stronghold of the Shia Islamist Hezbollah movement.
A statement purporting to be from the so-called Islamic State group said that it carried out the attack. The Sunni jihadist group Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility, but there has been no independent confirmation.
The conflict in neighbouring Syria has worsened tensions in Lebanon. Southern Beirut has been targeted by Sunni militant groups in the past. It is the deadliest bombing in Beirut since the civil war ended 25 years ago.
Hezbollah has fought alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Lebanese Sunni Muslims tend to back the Syrian opposition. Prime Minister Tammam Salam condemned the attacks as "unjustifiable" and called on Lebanon's rival factions to unite against "plans to create strife".
In addition, Lebanon, a country of roughly four million people, has played host to well over a million refugees from Syria, putting a strain on the country's infrastructure and adding to tensions. 'Innocents targeted'
There was extensive damage to buildings around the site of the blast and bodies inside some of the nearby shops, AFP news agency reports. Two bombers blew themselves up a short distance from each other in a street in Burj al-Barajneh at around 18:00 local time (16:00 GMT).
There was blood on the streets, and security forces were trying to cordon off the scene and keep people from gathering. One security told the Associated Press that the first bomber detonated his explosive vest outside a Shia mosque, while the second blew himself up inside a nearby bakery.
Security officials were quoted as saying that two suicide bombers caused the explosion and that the body of a third, who had not detonated his explosives, was found at the site. The body of a third suicide bomber was found nearby. He was apparently killed by the second blast before he could detonate his own explosive vest.
Syrian rebel groups including IS have also mounted attacks in Lebanon in recent years, but through it all the country has just about retained its fragile stability, the BBC's Sebastian Usher reports. "I'd just arrived at the shops when the blast went off. I carried four bodies with my own hands, three women and a man, a friend of mine," one witness told a local television station.
After a relatively calm period, the scale of this attack will reawaken fears that Lebanon may yet fall victim to the Syrian quagmire, our correspondent adds. Another said: "When the second blast went off, I thought the world had ended."
Hezbollah has ministers in a unity cabinet formed last year to govern Lebanon after months of political deadlock. IS subsequently issued a statement saying that it was behind the bombings. It identified the three attackers as two Palestinians and a Syrian.
Hezbollah vowed to continue its fight against "terrorists", warning of a "long war" against its enemies, according to the Reuters news agency.
"They targeted civilians, worshippers, women and the elderly. It only targeted those innocent people. This is a Satanic terrorist act, carried out by apostates," Hezbollah MP Bilal Farhat told AP.
The group's strongholds in southern Beirut were the target of a series of bombings in 2013 and 2014 mostly claimed by Sunni jihadist militants -who denounced Hezbollah's decision to send fighters to neighbouring Syria to prop up President Bashar al-Assad.
In recent weeks, Hezbollah has sent reinforcements to Syria in support of government offensives in northern areas held by rebel forces or IS.
BBC Arab affairs analyst Sebastian Usher says it is no surprise that IS has claimed these bombings, but the ferocity will once again reawaken the spectre of Lebanon's 15-year civil war.
So far the country - locked in political stalemate and with a crisis over uncollected rubbish having mobilised mass protests in the summer - has managed to hold onto its fragile stability, he adds.