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Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut, Killing at Least Eight Bomb Blast Rocks Beirut, Killing at Least Eight
(35 minutes later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A large bomb exploded in the heart of Beirut’s Christian section on Friday, and Civil Defense officials said at least eight people were killed. The blast injured many others, shattered windows for blocks and spread panic in a city where memories of sectarian violence from Lebanon’s long civil war have been resurrected by the conflict in neighboring Syria.BEIRUT, Lebanon — A large bomb exploded in the heart of Beirut’s Christian section on Friday, and Civil Defense officials said at least eight people were killed. The blast injured many others, shattered windows for blocks and spread panic in a city where memories of sectarian violence from Lebanon’s long civil war have been resurrected by the conflict in neighboring Syria.
The identities of the dead were not immediately clear, and there was no word on who was behind the blast, which the authorities said was caused either by a car bomb or a bomb hidden in the street or under a vehicle parked in the affluent Sassine area, about two blocks from a gleaming shopping center. The identities of the dead were not immediately clear, and there was no word on who was behind the blast, which the authorities said had been caused either by a car bomb or a bomb hidden in the street or under a vehicle parked in the affluent Sassine area, about two blocks from a gleaming shopping center.
Shattered glass fell from buildings several blocks away. One car’s blackened and ripped hulk appeared to have been thrown on top of another by the blast. Shutters were askew on a traditional Lebanese house across the narrow street. Fire trucks, ambulances, police and soldiers crowded the neighborhood.Shattered glass fell from buildings several blocks away. One car’s blackened and ripped hulk appeared to have been thrown on top of another by the blast. Shutters were askew on a traditional Lebanese house across the narrow street. Fire trucks, ambulances, police and soldiers crowded the neighborhood.
Not far behind them came phalanxes of politicians marching in suits and ties from all directions to point fingers — but also to plead that Lebanon not get dragged into tit-for-tat killings or a return to the sectarian conflict that convulsed this Mediterranean seaside city during the 1975-1991 civil war.Not far behind them came phalanxes of politicians marching in suits and ties from all directions to point fingers — but also to plead that Lebanon not get dragged into tit-for-tat killings or a return to the sectarian conflict that convulsed this Mediterranean seaside city during the 1975-1991 civil war.
The explosion shook the neighborhood just before 3 p.m., sending black smoke rising over the Sassine area, a wealthy shopping and residential district. The explosion shook the neighborhood just before 3 p.m., sending black smoke rising over the Sassine area, a wealthy shopping and residential district. Beirut cellphones were jammed as people spread the news.
Beirut cellphones were jammed as people apparently spread the news. Residents and politicians noted that the explosion took place in the same area where a bomb hit the headquarters of the Christian Phalange Party in 1982, assassinating its leader, Bashir Gemayel, just after he had been elected president.
At a sporting club near the beach, where Beirut business people and wealthy residents were whiling away a hazy, unseasonably hot afternoon on terraces, people could be heard repeating the news. Several got up to leave the beach immediately. Civil Defense officers who rushed to the scene picked pieces of flesh off a security fence and put them into plastic bags. Wounded people, many of them elderly residents of the neighborhood, were emerging from houses, sobbing. One woman walked in a bloodied nightgown.
The civil war that tore apart Beirut’s central downtown is hardly recognizable today in the vibrant districts of Ashrafiyeh in the largely Christian east and Hamra in the largely Muslim west. Once strongholds of Christian and Muslim factions, they are now usually peaceful areas full of pubs and restaurants where Lebanese mix freely. But reminders of the divisions remain evident with posters of the leaders of each sect killed over the years in political violence. In an upstairs apartment near the blast, Lily Nameh, 73, said she had been taking a nap with her husband, Ghaleb. “I thought it was an earthquake,” she said. “Suddenly everything was falling on us.” Her husband said “It felt like a plane landed on the building.”At a sporting club near the beach, where Beirut business people and wealthy residents were whiling away a hazy, unseasonably hot afternoon on terraces, people could be heard repeating the news. Several got up to leave the beach immediately.
The physical scars of the civil war that tore apart Beirut’s central downtown are hardly evident today in the vibrant districts of Ashrafiyeh in the largely Christian east and Hamra in the largely Muslim west. Once strongholds of Christian and Muslim factions, they are now usually peaceful areas full of pubs and restaurants where Lebanese mix freely. But vestiges of the divisions remain evident with posters of the leaders of each sect killed over the years in political violence.

Hwaida Saad, Hania Mourtada and Josh Wood contributed reporting.