Suicide attack in Tripoli while Lebanese show soilidarity with France in Beirut.
Photo: AFP
Suicide bombing in northern Lebanon coffee shop kills 7
Grenade attack follwed by suicide bombing strike coffee shop in northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, killing at least 7 people and wounding more than 30.
A grenade attack followed by a suicide bombing struck a coffee shop Saturday night in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, killing at least seven people and wounding more than 30, security officials and the Red Cross said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast in Tripoli's predominantly Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen, though violence from neighboring Syria's civil war has spilled into the city in the past.
Lebanese citizens show solidarity for attacks in France the same day suicide bombing kills 7 in northern Lebanon. (Photo: AFP)
George Kitane, the head of paramedics at the Lebanese Red Cross, told the private satellite station al-Jadeed that the blasts killed seven people and wounded 36.
The state-run National News Agency said the attack killed nine people and wounded more than 35, citing its local reporter for the casualty figures. It added that authorities imposed a curfew in the neighborhood until 7 am Sunday.
As Lebanese show solidarity with France, suicide attack takes place in Tripoli. (Photo: EPA)
A Lebanese army statement said the suicide bomber attacked the cafe at around 7:30 pm (1730 GMT, 12:30 pm EST). It said military police would investigate the bombing.
Tripoli has been relatively quiet recently after years of tension between its majority Sunni population and its Alawite minority. Embattled President Bashar Assad in neighboring Syria is an Alawite and support for him in Tripoli has sparked violence there before. Most of the Sunnis in Tripoli support the predominantly Sunni Syrian rebels trying to overthrow Assad.
Lebanon has seen a series of attacks and suicide bombings since the conflict in Syria, which has killed more than 200,000 people, began nearly four years ago. Saturday's attack was among the deadliest to hit the country in the past year.
Lebanon's al-Qaida-linked group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, has claimed some of the attacks. It has warned that attacks will continue as long as the militant Hezbollah group takes part in Syria's civil war alongside Assad's military.
The last suicide attack struck in Lebanon on September 20, when a suicide car bomber attacked a Hezbollah checkpoint near the eastern town of Khreibeh. State-run media said three people were killed, though Hezbollah's television station said no one was killed.
