(Photo: AP Images / Pierre Bou Karam)A Lebanese woman reacts as she is comforted by a relative near the site of explosion in Beirut, Lebanon Friday, Jan. 25, 2008. A car bomb ripped through one of Beirut's Christian neighborhoods Friday, killing at least five people including a top police official who had been investigating terrorist bombings, officials said.
(Photo: AP Images / Ahmad Omar)Lebanese soldiers secure the scene near a damaged car with a covered body in it at the site of explosion in Beirut, Lebanon Friday, Jan. 25, 2008. A car bomb ripped through one of Beirut's Christian neighborhoods Friday, killing at least five people including a top police official who had been investigating terrorist bombings, officials said. The force of the blast, which struck midmorning in Hazmieh on the Lebanese capital's eastern edge, set a dozen vehicles ablaze and ripped a crater in the asphalt two meters (six feet) wide and a meter (3 feet) deep. Another dozen vehicles were wrecked in a nearby lot.
Marriage
New FRC Report Finds 162 Reasons to Marry
To celebrate National Marriage Week, Family Research Council's Marriage and ...
Opinion
Gay by Choice?
Are all homosexuals "born that way"? Not if you believe the testimony of a ...
Theology
10 Reasons to Believe in a Historical Adam
In recent years, several self-proclaimed evangelicals, or those associated with ...
Church & Ministries
Former Megachurch Pastor Goes Church Hopping as a Newcomer
When finally given the opportunity to simply attend, and not preside or preach ...
An explosion in the Christian area of Beirut on Friday killed at least six people, wounded more than a dozen and set several vehicles on fire, according to local reports.
The blast apparently targeted a top-level intelligence officer who handled sensitive files on terrorist bombings. Capt. Wissam Eid, who had two previous attempts on his life, and his bodyguard were both killed by the bomb as they drove on a street in Hazmieh, on the Christian eastern edge of the capital, according to The Associated Press.
The country's national police chief, Brig. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, said Eid was an engineer who dealt with “very important” files, including “all those having to do with the terrorist bombings” in Lebanon, AP reported.
Ashraf confirmed that the blast was a car bomb that killed Eid.
Video footage showed huge clouds of black smoke rising from the streets and orange flames shooting up to the sky. The blast left a giant crater in the asphalt.
Local Future TV station, a private media with close ties to the government and the Interior Ministry, reported that 10 people died. Other Lebanese stations said at least six were killed and 18 wounded.
Like us on Facebook
Friday’s blast is the latest in a series of explosions that has hit Lebanon, including some outright political assassinations. Syria – considered a terrorist government by the United States and Israel – has been blamed for many of the bombings, but has denied any involvement.
In September, a bomb also exploded in the Christian area outside of Beirut killing a prominent Christian parliament member.
Antoine Ghanem, a member of the Christian Phalange party, was the eighth anti-Syria figure and fourth lawmaker to be assassinated in less than three years. Ghanem had only returned from refuge abroad two days before his unexpected death. Lebanese lawmakers blamed Syria for Ghanem’s death.
Moreover, several months before Ghanem’s death, another bomb exploded in an empty bus parked in the Christian neighborhood outside of Beirut, wounding seven passers-by.
Media reports noted that the police intelligence department, of which Eid was a member, is close to the Lebanese government’s anti-Syrian majority, and has often received criticism by the pro-Syrian opposition.
Friday’s blast came 10 days after a car bomb targeted at a U.S. Embassy car killed three bystanders and wounded 16, according to Reuters.
