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BEIRUT, Lebanon — A powerful car bomb exploded in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Thursday afternoon, ravaging a mixed neighborhood populated by many supporters of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia and political party. It appeared to be the latest in a series of bombings over the civil war in neighboring Syria, where Hezbollah has sent fighters to aid government forces and its opponents support the insurgency.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The second deadly car bomb to strike the Beirut area in less than a week exploded on Thursday in a southern suburb of residential apartment buildings that is home to top Hezbollah offices and heavily populated with the group’s supporters.
Lebanese television showed scenes of chaos in a residential area, with smoke rising above charred cars, crowds of people pushing past one another and ambulances and fire trucks arriving. The state-run National News Agency said at least four people were killed and more than 70 wounded. Other Lebanese media put the death toll at six.
The blast created a black column of smoke visible across the city, shattered windows 11 floors up and hurled debris hundreds of feet. It accelerated the tempo of political violence, which is mostly fueled by deep splits between Lebanon’s Sunnis and Shiites that have been inflamed by the civil war in neighboring Syria.
The Lebanese army said the source of the blast appeared to have been more than 40 pounds of explosives packed in a dark green Jeep Cherokee. The National News Agency said human remains had been found in a car near the blast site but that the authorities had not determined whether they belonged to a suicide bomber.
Lebanon’s health ministry said at least four people were killed in the suburb, Haret Hreik, and more than 70 were wounded. The state-run National News Agency said that human remains were found in a car near the blast site but that authorities had not determined whether they belonged to a suicide bomber.
The blast came six days after a car bomb killed a prominent member of the Future bloc, the Sunni party that is Hezbollah’s main political rival. And it came a day after reports surfaced of the arrest by Lebanese authorities of a Saudi militant who leads the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a group affiliated with Al Qaeda that claimed responsibility for a November suicide bombing at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. Iran is an ally of Hezbollah.
The explosion came six days after a car bomb killed a prominent member of the Future Movement, Hezbollah’s main political rival, who had openly criticized the group. And it came a day after reports of the arrest of a Saudi militant who leads a Lebanon-based affiliate of Al Qaeda, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in November near the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. Iran is an ally of Hezbollah.
The recent bombings, which have primarily killed civilians and instilled fear across Lebanon, are part of a string of escalating attacks in recent months related to the nearly three-year-old conflict in Syria, which has deepened Lebanon’s pre-existing political and sectarian divisions. Hezbollah’s fighters have been helping the Syrian army, and the Future bloc endorses the insurgency, which Lebanese Sunni militants have crossed the border to join.
The recent bombings follow a string of similar attacks related to the nearly three-year-old conflict in Syria, which has aggravated sectarian tensions in Lebanon and raised fears of wider armed conflict here. Hezbollah, a Shiite movement, has sent fighters to support the Syrian Army, while Lebanon’s Sunnis largely support the Syrian rebels, and some have shipped them weapons or crossed the border to join them on the battlefield.
Fearing more indiscriminate violence and a further unraveling in Lebanon, leaders of the divergent factions in the country’s complex politics rushed to condemn the latest bombing, even those who want Hezbollah out of Syria. The March 14th coalition, of which the Future bloc is the largest party, said in a statement that each victim was “a martyr mourned by all Lebanese.” The March 14 leader, Saad Hariri, the former prime minister, said “the terrorism that is targeting civilians, innocents and civilian areas is criminal behavior.”
Although no group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday’s bombing, residents said they believed it was linked to Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria, and some said they had expected an attack.
In a video statement last week, a cleric acting as a spokesman for the Abdullah Azzam Brigades declared that the group would not stop its bombings until Hezbollah withdraws its fighters from Syria and Lebanese authorities release youths imprisoned for militant activities. Lebanese officials had expressed concern after the arrest of the group’s leader, Majid al-Majid, about the possibility of retaliatory attacks.
“We didn’t know if it would be today or tomorrow or when, but we knew we would be targeted because of Hezbollah,” said Ali Hassan, an accounting student, who accused Syrian rebels or their sympathizers in the attack.
Areas in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah maintains its headquarters among residents who are mainly Shiite but include Sunni Palestinians, Christians and others, have been hit twice in the past year, first in July, in a bombing that wounded many but caused no reported deaths, then in August, when a bomb killed at least 18 people and wounded hundreds. The August attack was closely followed by two attacks on Sunni mosques in the northern city of Tripoli that killed dozens.
“When they get smacked in Syria, they come and hit us here,” he said.
Threats have multiplied against Hezbollah and its followers from supporters of the Syrian insurgency who are incensed that Hezbollah has sent fighters to support the Syrian government.
Despite the attack’s apparently political nature, it struck civilians hardest.
While the Future bloc officially disavows the use of violence, some of its leaders have been involved in funneling arms to Syrian rebels, and some of its constituents have become radicalized, following hard-line Sunni clerics who have called for attacks on Hezbollah. And insurgents from Syria, including foreign jihadists as well as Syrians, have increasingly penetrated the porous border into Lebanon. In recent weeks some groups have said in interviews and video statements that they plan to escalate attacks on Hezbollah interests in Lebanon.
Sitting outside his apartment building across the street from the blast, Mohammed Hussein, a retired barber, said he had been napping when the explosion blew his bedroom windows from their frames and showered him with glass and other debris. “There is no more security anywhere in Lebanon,” he said, still shaken. “No one knows what is going to happen to this country.”
In an interview last month, a rebel commander said that some insurgent groups had already arrived in Lebanon from Syria. “They want to attack all the regime’s allies in Lebanon,” the commander said, asking not to be identified by name for protection from reprisals. “Lebanon became their arena.”
While the neighborhood is residential, Hezbollah dominates the area. Posters of the group’s armed members who have died in battle adorn lampposts, and the group’s media office and construction company are nearby, as is the Lebanon office of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.
In another recent interview, a Syrian anti-government activist reached in Aleppo, the embattled city in northern Syria, said that 125 fighters were preparing to leave the city to launch attacks in Hezbollah’s heartland in southern Lebanon, including some fighters from the two most radical rebel groups, the Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and the even more extremist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The Aleppo activist, who said he was not involved with either group, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
After the blast, security forces deployed near the site and Hezbollah security agents with walkie-talkies blocked roads and patrolled nearby streets, checking the identification of passers-by. One man wearing a yellow armband bearing the group’s insignia told reporters they needed permits to work in the area and told residents they were forbidden to speak with them.
Also last month, a group calling itself Mujahedeen of the Land of Sham, a reference to greater Syria, circulated a YouTube video showing masked youths undergoing military training. One fighter read a statement saying that the group planned to shell what it called “Hezbollah strongholds” in the towns of Nubol and Zahra, predominantly Shiite villages in Aleppo province. The video, which has since been removed by YouTube as a violation of its policy on violence, also said the group’s attacks on Hezbollah members would be aimed at “making their day night and their night day.”
Fearing more violence, leaders of the divergent factions in the country’s complex politics rushed to condemn the bombing.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said in speeches that the group is fighting in Syria to thwart takfiris, a disparaging reference to Sunni extremists who brand their opponents as infidels. Mr. Nasrallah has called them a threat not just to Shiites but to the entire region.
The March 14th coalition, which includes the Future Movement, said in a statement that each victim was “a martyr mourned by all Lebanese.” The head of the Future Movement, Saad Hariri, a former prime minister, said that those killed were victims not only of terrorism, but also of “the involvement in foreign wars, especially the Syrian war.”
The bombings are seen by supporters and critics of Hezbollah as targeting civilians to put pressure on Hezbollah over its Syria policy. But Hezbollah’s political base seems deeply committed, and its fighters exhibit a soldier-like discipline in going where ordered. Still, the bombings have led to new security measures in the southern suburbs and left the group’s supporters, as well as Shiites not affiliated with the party, feeling increasingly at risk.
Although the Future Movement officially disavows the use of violence, some members have smuggled arms to the Syrian rebels, and its leaders have lost ground to hard-line clerics who call for attacks on Hezbollah.
Randa Slim, a Lebanese analyst at the Middle East Institute, has said that the recent string of attacks on Hezbollah interests and civilians in areas it controls has strengthened a view among some of Lebanon’s Shiites, that “the fight in Syria is making the party and the community vulnerable and less protected at a time when the community feels itself targeted by a number of domestic and regional enemies.”
In recent weeks, Sunni fighters have said in interviews and video statements that they plan to escalate attacks on Hezbollah interests in Lebanon.
Mohammad
Ghannam and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.
In a video statement last week, a cleric acting as a spokesman for the Abdullah Azzam Brigades said the group would not stop its bombings until Hezbollah withdrew its fighters from Syria and the Lebanese authorities released youths jailed for militant activities. Lebanese officials expressed concern after the arrest of the group’s leader, Majid bin Muhammad al-Majid, that it could lead to retaliatory attacks.
In an interview last month, a Syrian rebel commander said via Skype that some insurgent groups had already arrived in Lebanon. “They want to attack all the regime’s allies in Lebanon,” the commander said, asking not to be identified by name for protection from reprisals. “Lebanon became their arena.”
In another recent interview, a Syrian opposition activist reached in Aleppo, the embattled city in northern Syria, said that 125 fighters were preparing to go to Lebanon to attack Hezbollah areas. They included fighters from two Syrian affiliates of Al Qaeda, said the activist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said in speeches that the group is fighting in Syria against takfiris, meaning Sunni extremists who consider their opponents infidels. He has called them a threat not just to Shiites, but to the entire region.
Residential areas in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah holds enormous influence, were bombed twice last year. An attack in August near the site of Thursday’s bombing killed at least 18 people. Eight days later, twin car bombs exploded outside of Sunni mosques in the northern city of Tripoli, killing dozens and raising the specter of reprisal attacks.
Hwaida Saad and Mohammad Ghannam contributed reporting.
