The mid-morning blasts hit the upscale neighborhood of Janah, a stronghold of the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah group, leaving pools of blood and bodies on the rubble-strewn street amid burning cars.
Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the bombings appeared to be another strike in the proxy battles that have played out in the region for decades and now intensified with the civil war next door in Syria.
A Lebanese security official said the first suicide attacker was on a motorcycle that carried two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of explosives. He blew himself up at the large black main gate of the Iranian mission, damaging the three-story facility, the official said.
Less than two minutes later, a second suicide attacker driving a car rigged with 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives struck about 10 meters (yards) away, the official said. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Attacks have targeted Hezbollah strongholds in recent months in what many see as retaliation by Sunni extremists for the Shiite group’s role in Syria’s bloody conflict, now in its third year.
Shiite Iran has long played a central role in Syria as the main Mideast backer of President Bashar Assad’s government, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters have aided Assad’s forces in battling the largely Sunni rebels seeking to topple him. Sunni Gulf Arab powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar are chief backers of the insurgency in Syria.
Iranian Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi identified the dead diplomat as Sheikh Ibrahim Ansari. Speaking to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV from inside the embassy compound, he said Ansari took his post in Lebanon a month ago and was overseeing all regional cultural activities. Al-Manar reported that the street targeted by the suicide bombers includes a building where some of the Iranian diplomats and their families live.
An unidentified Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman blamed Israel for the attacks while Hezbollah and Syrian officials indirectly blamed Saudi Arabia.
‘Each of the terrorist attacks that strike in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq reek of petrodollars,’ a Syrian government statement said, in a clear reference to oil-rich Gulf Arab countries that have sided with the Syrian rebels. At the scene, puddles of blood stained the ground, amid broken branches scattered from the blasts’ force. A woman in a black robe and headscarf, unable to stand, clutched a man, pleading with security forces for help. ‘Nader,’ she wailed, crying out a man’s name. ‘Nader is missing.’ Another man ran from the area, carrying a South Asian migrant worker limp in his arms. ‘People aren’t sacred anymore. We aren’t safe,’ said a mechanic whose store windows were shattered by the blasts.
Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the bombings appeared to be another strike in the proxy battles that have played out in the region for decades and now intensified with the civil war next door in Syria.
A Lebanese security official said the first suicide attacker was on a motorcycle that carried two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of explosives. He blew himself up at the large black main gate of the Iranian mission, damaging the three-story facility, the official said.
Less than two minutes later, a second suicide attacker driving a car rigged with 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives struck about 10 meters (yards) away, the official said. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Attacks have targeted Hezbollah strongholds in recent months in what many see as retaliation by Sunni extremists for the Shiite group’s role in Syria’s bloody conflict, now in its third year.
Shiite Iran has long played a central role in Syria as the main Mideast backer of President Bashar Assad’s government, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters have aided Assad’s forces in battling the largely Sunni rebels seeking to topple him. Sunni Gulf Arab powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar are chief backers of the insurgency in Syria.
Iranian Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi identified the dead diplomat as Sheikh Ibrahim Ansari. Speaking to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV from inside the embassy compound, he said Ansari took his post in Lebanon a month ago and was overseeing all regional cultural activities. Al-Manar reported that the street targeted by the suicide bombers includes a building where some of the Iranian diplomats and their families live.
An unidentified Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman blamed Israel for the attacks while Hezbollah and Syrian officials indirectly blamed Saudi Arabia.
‘Each of the terrorist attacks that strike in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq reek of petrodollars,’ a Syrian government statement said, in a clear reference to oil-rich Gulf Arab countries that have sided with the Syrian rebels. At the scene, puddles of blood stained the ground, amid broken branches scattered from the blasts’ force. A woman in a black robe and headscarf, unable to stand, clutched a man, pleading with security forces for help. ‘Nader,’ she wailed, crying out a man’s name. ‘Nader is missing.’ Another man ran from the area, carrying a South Asian migrant worker limp in his arms. ‘People aren’t sacred anymore. We aren’t safe,’ said a mechanic whose store windows were shattered by the blasts.