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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | |
| Apartment block blast kills one in tense Lebanon city | |
| 2008-06-29 | |
| TRIPOLI, Lebanon - One person was killed and 20 others were wounded on Saturday as a powerful blast shook an apartment block in the northern port city of Tripoli, a Lebanese security official said. "One man was killed and some 20 people, most of them women and children, were wounded," the official told AFP as rescuers evacuated victims from the site of the 5:30 am (0230 GMT) blast in the Sunni area of Bab al-Tebbaneh. It was not known several hours later what caused the explosion in a district of the tense northern city that has been at the centre of clashes between Sunni militants and fighters of the Alawite community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The first floor of the multi-storey building, with four apartments, was destroyed by the explosion along with several stores on the ground floor. Cars parked nearby were damaged. Lebanese troops and police reinforcements were deployed as investigators inspected the scene but they kept tight-lipped about the cause of the blast.
Lebanon's Sunni mufti, Mohammed Rashid Qabbani, condemned the explosion as a "criminal act aimed at spreading sedition," and urged all politicians to help Prime Minister Fuad Siniora form a new government. Residents of Bab al-Tebbaneh who support the Western-backed majority in parliament have clashed repeatedly with Alawites in the nearby Jabal Mohsen district who back the Hezbollah-led opposition supported by Syria and Iran. Nine people were killed and some 45 wounded in clashes between the two sides on June 22 and 23. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 See why Arabs don't like Democracy. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-06-29 07:18 |