Fearful faces filled the debris-strewn street in central Beirut rocked by a lethal bomb blast, with bystanders expressing concern that the bombings which have been absent in recent years could return to Lebanon. A car bomb had exploded in the Christian-dominated Asrafiyeh area during rush hour on Friday. Eight people were killed, among them a high-ranking security official, and another 78 were injured.
Residents of the neighbourhood's fashionable Sassine Square were in shock and said they were scared that the deadly bombings and assassinations that struck Lebanon between 2005 and 2008 were coming back. "This is a scene I have erased from my memory. But this blast reminded me that one push to the violence button will bring it all back," Piere Breidi, whose daughter was slightly injured in the blast, said.
Reaching the area where the car bomb took place was difficult as the street was covered with rubble, shattered glass and dozens of damaged cars lining the street. Dozens of soldiers and investigators were at the scene examining what is left of the car bomb, which killed Wissam al-Hassan, the head of the Information Branch in Lebanon's Internal Security Forces (ISF).
"This is a very serious security incident and we are doing our best to find the culprits behind this criminal act," an intelligence officer, who requested anonymity, told dpa at the scene. Al-Hassan was behind uncovering a recent bomb plot that led to the arrest of former minister Michel Samaha, who has been accused of trying to help smuggle explosives into Lebanon. Samaha is one of many Lebanese politicians who support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against the uprising that began last year in Lebanon's neighbour.
Al-Hassan also played a key role in pursuing the killers of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri in 2005, which was the most high-profile attack since Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. The offices of the March 14 political group and those of the Christian Phalange party, both of which are outspoken critics of al-Assad, are located nearby.
"This is a clear criminal act in order to terrorise the people of Beirut," said Sunni-Muslim parliamentarian Mohammed Kabbani. As many in Beirut were pointing their fingers at Damascus, the Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi was prompt to condemn the Beirut blast.
"These terrorist explosions are condemned wherever they take place, nothing can justify them," the official SANA news agency quoted al-Zoubi as saying. Since the uprising erupted in Syria, many observers expressed fears that the conflict could spill over into Lebanon. The Lebanese political arena is already divided between pro- and anti-Syrian regime factions.
On Thursday, Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab envoy peace to Syria warned that a truce should be established in Syria "because if the crisis stays one cannot expect the crisis to remain within Syrian borders." The conflict has in recent months sparked deadly clashes in Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli between mostly Sunni fighters and supporters of President Bashar al-Assad, who is from the Alawite sect.
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