Expolosion in Tripoli (archives)
Photo: AFP
Officials: 5 killed in northern Lebanon explosion
At least five killed, 25 wounded as car bomb explodes near bus carrying soldiers in northern city of Tripoli
A car bomb exploded near a military bus carrying troops heading to their work in northern Lebanon
Monday, killing at least five people and wounding 25, Lebanese security officials said.
A senior military official told The Associated Press that three soldiers were among the dead, but had no breakdown of the number of injured among the troops.
The officials said most of the casualties were soldiers. It was the second deadly attack targeting troops in northern Lebanon in less than two months.
Lebanon-Syria Relations
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The security officials said the car packed with explosives was parked on the side of the road and was detonated by remote control as the bus drove in the Bahsas neighborhood on the southern entrance to the northern port city of Tripoli.
They said the explosives used were mixed with metal balls to maximize casualties.
The blast, which tossed the car about a dozen meters, occurred during the morning rush hour, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Scene of attack (Photo: Reuters)
Television footage showed soldiers sealing off the area and preventing people from approaching the blast scene. The explosion shattered windows of cars parked in the area. Police forensic experts in plainclothes searched for evidence in the bus wreckage. Pieces of flesh were strewn on the road.
Tripoli has been rocked by sectarian fighting between pro-government Sunni fighters and pro-Syrian gunmen of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, that killed or wounded dozens in the summer before a truce was reached.
On August 13, a total of 18 soldiers and civilians were killed by a roadside bomb packed with nuts and bolts near a bus carrying troops on a busy Tripoli street. It was Lebanon's deadliest bombing in more than three years.
Monday's explosion came two days after a massive bombing in the capital of neighboring Syria killed 17 people and wounded 14. Syrian authorities on Monday said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber and that the vehicle came from a neighboring Arab country.
It did not identify the country. Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan border Syria. Syrian President Bashar Assad has recently warned of extremists operating in northern Lebanon and beefed up his border troops along that frontier in recent days.
No group has claimed responsibility for Syria's explosion, the August bombing in Tripoli, or Monday's attack.
Tripoli, about 50 miles (90 kilometers) north of Beirut on the Mediterranean coast, is a majority Sunni city and is Lebanon's second-largest. The region there is known to be a strong base for Sunni militants.
In 2007, Lebanese troops fought Sunni militants of Fatah Islam group in a nearby Palestinian refugee camp. The three-month battle that left hundreds dead before the army crushed the militants.
Fatah Islam group claimed responsibility for a bomb blast that killed a soldier in Abdeh, near Tripoli, on May 31.
Sheik Daie al-Islam al-Shahal, founder of the fundamentalist Salafi Sunni movement in northern Lebanon, said Monday's attack was part of the conflict among "external forces" in Lebanon, rejecting suggestions that Sunni militants were behind it.
"The false allegations and haste do not help stability and cause tensions," said al-Shahal, Lebanon's most powerful Salafist leader.
