A suicide bomber blew up his car on Monday night near an army checkpoint, killing a security officer, identified as
Abdul Karim Hodroj and wounding several people watching the FIFA World Cup game in a nearby cafe.
The
Abdullah Azzam brigades, a Lebanon-based al Qaeda affiliate, claimed responsibility for the Tayouneh explosion.
The bombing came just three days after a failed attempt to kill one of the top security officials in Lebanon, which has suffered a wave of sectarian violence linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria.
Sources reported to LBCI that Monday's explosion, shortly before midnight, wounded 20 persons, pointing out that they were all transported to nearby hospitals, mainly al-Sahel and Bahman.
In this regard, Health Minister Wael Abou Faour called on all hospitals in the region to receive and treat the wounded on the expense of the ministry.
It is worth noting that the force of the explosion sent parts of the body of the suicide bomber to the fourth floor of a nearby building adding to the confusion of the death toll at the time.
Following the explosion, State Commissioner to the Military court Judge Saqr Saqr tasked the military police and Lebanese Armed Forces Intelligence with examining the crime scene and launching an investigation into the attack.
Meanwhile, sources told LBCI also that the car dealer Zouheir Abdallah Soueid and Syrian national Ali Hassan Dirani had purchased the Mercedes used in the suicide bombing from Nemer Chamoun.
Army Command
The Army Command announced on that on Monday overnight, a suicide bomber driving a white Mercedes 300 holding a plate number 324784/G, blew up himself across an army checkpoint at the Tayouneh roundabout.
The Army Command mentioned that a number of civilians were wounded due to the explosion, adding that a General Security officer went missing right after the explosion and his fate remains unknown thus far.
In its statement, the Army Command noted that Lebanese Armed Forces immediately cordoned off the site of the explosion and investigations were launched, pointing out that the bomb used in the attack weighed approximately 25 kilograms.
Positions
The United States condemned on Tuesday morning the terrorist bombing that targeted south Beirut’s Tayouneh region, wishing full recovery to those wounded in the attack.
The US reaffirmed its support for the Lebanese Army and Internal Security Forces in their mission to uphold Lebanon’s security and stability.
Dahr el-Baydar’s attack
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a security checkpoint in Lebanon's Daher al-Baydar in the Eastern Bekaa Valley on Friday the 20th of June, leaving at least 1 person killed, an ISF member, and up to 32 wounded, the health ministry said.
The said explosion came after the Internal Security Forces had received information on the presence of terrorist networks infiltrating the country namely for the possible assassination of Lebanon's Director General of General Security Major General Abbas Ibrahim who narrowly escaped the attack.
The last explosion that hit Lebanon before Friday's occurred on March 29, when a suicide bomber in an explosives-laden vehicle targeted a Lebanese army checkpoint near the Syrian border, killing three people.
Hard-line Sunni groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks against Shiite areas, saying they are meant to punish the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah movement for fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops in Syria.
Spillover from Syria war
Hezbollah has been fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces against the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels, who have also been supported by Lebanese Sunnis.
The conflict has spilled over into sectarian violence in Lebanon, with rocket attacks on Shiite towns in the Bekaa Valley, close to the border with Syria, and bombings of Shiite and Sunni targets in Lebanon's main coastal cities.
Syria's conflict has re-aggravated sectarian strife in Lebanon where gunbattles, car bombs and rocket attacks linked to Syria have killed scores of Lebanese and revived memories of the country's own 15-year civil war that formally ended in 1990.
LBCI/REUTERS