TRIPOLI, Lebanon
(AP) -- Twin car bombs exploded outside mosques in the northern
Lebanese city of Tripoli Friday, killing at least 27 people, wounding
over 350 and wreaking major destruction in the country's second largest
city, Lebanese Health Ministry officials said.
Footage
aired on local TV showed thick, black smoke billowing over the city and
bodies scattered beside burning cars in scenes reminiscent of Lebanon's
1975-90 civil war.
The blasts hit amid
soaring tensions in Lebanon as a result of Syria's civil war, which has
sharply polarized the country along sectarian lines and between
supporters and opponents of the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
It was the second such bombing in just over a week, showing the degree
to which the tiny country is being consumed by the raging war next door.
Tripoli,
a predominantly Sunni Muslim city, has seen frequent clashes between
Sunnis and Alawites, a Shiite offshoot sect to which Assad belongs. But
the city itself has rarely seen such explosions in recent years.
Friday's
blasts mark the first time in years that such explosions have targeted
Sunni strongholds and were bound to raise sectarian tensions in the
country to new levels. It was also the most powerful and deadliest in
Tripoli since the end of the civil war.
Attacks
have become common in the past few months against Shiite strongholds in
Lebanon, particularly following the open participation of the militant
Shiite Hezbollah group on behalf of Assad in Syria's civil war.
On
Aug. 15, a car bomb rocked a Shiite stronghold of Hezbollah in the
southern suburbs of Beirut, also killing 27 people and wounding over
300. A less powerful car bomb targeted the same area on July 9, wounding
over 50.
There was no immediate claim of
responsibility for Friday's attacks, which raised the ominous specter of
Iraqi-style tit-for-tat explosions pitting Sunnis against Shiites.
Samir
Darwish, a 47-year-old contractor, said he was in a Tripoli square when
he heard the first explosion and ran in the direction of the fire to
the Salam Mosque, one of the two targeted.
"I
came here and saw the catastrophe. Bloodied people were running in the
street, several other dead bodies were scattered on the ground," he
said. "It looked like doomsday, death was everywhere."
Hezbollah
swiftly condemned the bombings, calling it a "terrorist bombing" and
part of a "criminal project that aims to sow the seeds of civil strife
between the Lebanese and drag them into sectarian and ethnic
infighting."
In a strongly worded statement,
the group expressed "utmost solidarity and unity with our brothers in
the beloved city of Tripoli."
Security
officials said the blasts went off on the Muslim day of prayer, when
places of worship would be packed. An official said one of the blasts
exploded outside the Taqwa mosque, the usual place of prayer for Sheik
Salem Rafei, a Salafi cleric opposed to Hezbollah, which holds sway in
much of the country. It was not clear whether he was inside the mosque,
but the National News Agency said he wasn't hurt.
The
official said the blast went off as worshippers were streaming out of
the mosque. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The
second car bomb explosion went off about five minutes later in the Mina
district of Tripoli, about five meters from the gate to the Salam
Mosque. The explosion blew open a 5-meter-wide and 1-meter-deep crater
outside the mosque. Damaged cars surrounded the area, at least half a
dozen of them totally charred.
The preachers of both mosques are virulent opponents of Assad and Hezbollah.
---
AP writer Zeina Karam contributed from Beirut.
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