Deadly suicide blasts rock Iran embassy in Beirut

BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPDATED) – A double suicide bombing outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut killed at least 23 people on Tuesday, November 19, in an attack claimed by an Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group.

The attack, which also wounded almost 150 people in a southern Beirut stronghold of the Hezbollah movement, is the first time the Iranian embassy in Lebanon has been targeted.

The blasts ripped the facades off surrounding buildings, strewing rubble and glass on streets that were stained with blood.

Residents walked dazed past charred cars and trees, as soldiers and Hezbollah security men tried to secure the area.

The blasts follow two other bomb attacks this year in Hezbollah bastions in southern Beirut, amid rising tensions over the conflict in neighboring Syria.

Iran is one of Syria’s closest allies, and is the key sponsor of Hezbollah, which has dispatched thousands of fighters to bolster the regime as it battles a 32-month-old uprising.

Damascus quickly condemned the mid-morning blasts.

“The Syrian government firmly condemns the terrorist attack carried out near the Iranian embassy in Beirut,” state television said.

It said an “odour of petrodollars comes from all the terrorist acts against Syria, Lebanon and Iraq,” an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which back Syria’s uprising.

Iran also condemned the attack, accusing Israel and its “mercenaries” of responsibility. Israel immediately denied involvement.

Britain and France also issued swift statements slamming the bombings, which London described as a “shocking terrorist attack”.

The blasts were claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, a jihadist group linked to Al-Qaeda that has previously fired rockets at Israel from Lebanese territory.

“This is a double martyrdom operation carried out by two heros from the heroic Sunnis of Lebanon,” Sirajeddin Zreikat, a member of the group, wrote on his Twitter account.

The Lebanese army confirmed the attack was a double suicide bombing, and the health ministry said 23 people were dead and 146 wounded.

Iran’s ambassador Ghazanfar Rokn-Abadi said all staff inside the embassy at the time of the attack escaped unharmed.

“All colleagues inside the embassy are in full health,” he said, quoted by Mehr news agency.

Initial reports said an Iranian cultural adviser had been killed in the blast, but officials in Tehran said later that he was still showing “signs of life”.

‘Charred bodies ablaze’

An Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent at the scene described blood and glass on the streets and Lebanese media broadcast harrowing images of charred bodies, some still on fire.

One shocked resident said the attack was an act of “savagery”.

“People want to live. After this kind of thing we are paralyzed for days. Thank God my children were at school,” said Farah, a woman in her 30s.

At the nearby Rasul Aazem hospital, which received the bodies of seven people killed in the blasts, relatives waited to hear news of their loved ones while others queued to donate blood.

At the Zahraa hospital, Mohamed al-Hajj was searching for his neighbor Tariq.

“He works in front of the embassy and now we don’t know where he is. We checked all the hospitals,” he told AFP.

“It’s so hard, we don’t know if he is alive or dead, injured or all right,” he said, dragging on a cigarette between sips of coffee.

Hezbollah has already seen its strongholds in southern Beirut targeted twice by car bombs this year, on July 9 and August 15, killing 27 people.

Its involvement in the Syrian conflict has angered many Lebanese Sunnis, who back the Sunni-dominated Syrian opposition.

It has also raised fears Lebanon could be engulfed by the Syrian conflict, which killed more than 120,000 people since March 2011.

But Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah pledged just last week that he would not withdraw his forces.

“We have said on several occasions that the presence of our soldiers on Syrian soil is to defend… Syria, which supports the resistance” against Israel, he said.

“So long as that reason exists, our presence there is justified.”

Nasrallah’s defiance was echoed by some residents after Tuesday’s blasts.

“Even if they do a million explosions, we will not leave the area,” said Ali, accusing “Salafis from Syria” of being behind the attacks.

“We are not afraid so long as God is with us and Hassan Nasrallah is with us,” he added. – Rappler.com