Friday, 23 August 2013

27 dead in twin explosions

 
At least 27 people have been killed and a further 350 injured in two explosions in Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli.
As Friday prayers ended, a blast hit the al-Taqwa mosque. A second blast five minutes later hit the al-Salam mosque.
Sectarian tensions between the city's Sunni Muslim and Alawite communities have increased in recent months due to war in neighbouring Syria.
Sheikh Salem Rafii is one of the most prominent Sunni leaders in Lebanon, usually attends the mosques and security officials believe that he was the possible target of the attack. He is opposed to Lebanon's militant Shia Hezbollah group and has previously urged the country's young men to join opposition fighters in Syria.
Ambulances rushed to the aftermath of the blasts and heavy black smoke covered the sky. Television pictures showed damaged cars on fire, with their windows smashed, and people running through the streets trying to carry wounded people to safety.
Bodies could be seen on the ground and windows were broken on surrounding apartment blocks.
The Associated Press reported that the preacher at the al-Salam mosque - the site of the second explosion - is also an opponent of the Syrian government and its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah.
No group has taken responsibility for the latest attacks.
Tripoli, a city of nearly 200,000 people and Lebanon's second largest, is one of the country's most volatile sectarian fault lines, with a small Alawite population living in the midst of a Sunni majority.
The Alawite community tend to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with Sunnis mostly backing the rebels fighting him.
The bombs come a week after a massive car bomb rocked a Shia district of Beirut, leaving dozens dead. The area hit contained Hezbollah strongholds.

SOURCE : di-ve

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