Bombs Kill 4 Near Iranian Cultural Center in Beirut

Two suicide bombers blew up their cars Wednesday trying to hit an Iranian cultural center in the dominantly-Shia Bir Abed district in southern Beirut, killing at least four people and wounding more than a hundred, Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility. (AP, 19 February)

The group, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda, said on its Twitter account that the “invasion of the Iranian cultural center’ was in “retaliation for Iran's party fighting along the criminal regime in Syria,” probably referring to Lebanese Hezbollah.

“We will continue to target Iran and its party in Lebanon through their security, political and military offices until Hezbollah fighters withdraw from Syria and scores of Islamic detainees are released from Lebanese jails,” Abdullah Azzam Brigades group said in its statement. (AP, 19 February)

Photo credit: the scene of suicide bombing near Iranian cultural center in Beirut, 19 February 2014. (csmonitor)

Tanks in Beirut as Protesters Gathered At Iran Embassy

A Member of Lebanese Option Gathering Killed

Lebanese soldiers blocked streets in Beirut with tanks and barbed wire for several hours today after the killing of a protester outside the Iranian embassy raised factional tensions already inflamed by the war in Syria, Reuters reported today.

The man, identified by Beirut media as Hisham Salman, head of the student section of the Lebanese Option Gathering, died when the Hezbollah militia opened fire at protesters marching toward the embassy. The Lebanese army then deployed armored vehicles and set up roadblocks to cordon off the city center and neighborhoods controlled by Hezbollah.

Demonstrators from a variety of groups, including Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims and Christians, marched in the city center in protest at Hezbollah's newly prominent role in supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - its fighters helped Assad's troops retake the strategic border town of Qusair last week.

When protesters from Lebanese Option Gathering, a small and predominantly Shi'ite party opposed to Hezbollah, arrived at the Iranian embassy south of the city center in a bus, they clash with black-clad Hezbollah militiamen, who opened fire. (Reuters, 9 June)

Violence within Lebanon's Shi'ite community is not unknown but is less visible than that between Lebanese Shi'ites and Sunnis since the two-year-old Syrian civil war veered onto to a clearly sectarian course, pitting Assad and his fellow Alawites, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, against mainly Sunni rebels.

Photo credit: Lebanese soldiers and Hezbollah supporters are seen gathered in front of the Iranian embassy in Beirut June 9, 2013. (REUTERS/ Stringer)

Terrorist Attack in Beirut

Terrorists attack Beirut in the first bombing of the Lebanese capital since 2008. (Photo: Press TV)