Car bomb death toll climbs to 22 in Hezbollah bastion

Flames rise from the site of a car bomb between the Bir el-Abed and Roueiss neighbourhoods, in the southern suburb of Beirut on August 15, 2013. A powerful car bomb killed at least six people and more than 100 wounded in a Beirut stronghold of Shiite movement Hezbollah, an army source and Lebanese Red Cross said. AFP PHOTO/STR

BEIRUT – Lebanon was holding a day of mourning Friday after a car bombing killed at least 22 people in a Beirut stronghold of Shiite group Hezbollah which backs Syria’s embattled president.

A previously unknown group, apparently a Syrian rebel cell, said it carried out Thursday’s attack in the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, between Bir al-Abed and Rweiss, districts where Hezbollah security is normally tight.

Police said the death toll had climbed to at least 22, while the Red Cross said 325 people were wounded and the National News Agency reported that seven people, including a man and his three children, were missing.

On Friday morning, investigators were combing the scene for clues, as Hezbollah security personnel sealed off the area, an AFP photographer reported. Group members in civilian clothes stopped and searched cars in the southern suburbs.

The bombing, reminiscent of the frequent attacks during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war, sent a plume of black smoke into the Mediterranean sky, caused heavy damage to buildings and setting several cars ablaze.

Lebanese leaders from across the political spectrum condemned the bombing, and a day of mourning was declared.

President Michel Sleiman said the “terrorist” bombing targeted all Lebanese, not just Hezbollah.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri, a Sunni leader and staunch critic of Hezbollah, said the attack was “part of a vicious terrorist scheme” targeting Lebanon.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Lebanon’s fractious political scene to stay united, in a statement that condemned the bombing as “completely unacceptable”.

“During this period of heightened tensions, the secretary general urges all Lebanese to remain united, to rally around their state institutions and to focus on safeguarding Lebanon’s security and stability,” the statement said.

The UN Security Council, meanwhile, “strongly condemned the terrorist attack.”

The 15-member body called for “all Lebanese people to preserve national unity in the face of attempts to undermine the country’s stability” and urged all parties “to refrain from any involvement in the Syrian crisis.”

The blast came a day after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his militant group was taking steps to ensure the security of the southern suburbs, after a July 9 car bomb in Bir al-Abed left dozens wounded.

A witness told a Lebanese television channel that he saw a van drive past three times before its driver found a parking spot where he set off the bomb.

The explosion had the impact of an “earthquake”, another witness said.