Page 49 - ATA 13 NOV 2015

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U.S. NEWSFriday 13 November 2015

Twin suicide blasts in Beirut’s Shiite suburb kill 43

BASSEM MROUE rut called Burj al-Barajneh, Lebanese soldiers arrest a suspected attacker attacker near the scene of a twin suicide attack
Associated Press a Hezbollah stronghold. in Burj al-Barajneh, southern Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015 that struck a Shiite suburb
BEIRUT (AP) — Twin suicide The Shiite group has been killed and wounded dozens, according to a Lebanese official.
bombings struck a south- fighting in Syria along with
ern Beirut suburb that’s a Syrian President Bashar (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
stronghold of the militant Assad’s forces. The area
Shiite Hezbollah group on has been hit in the past
Thursday evening, killing and Sunni militant groups
at least 43 people and have threatened to carry
wounding scores more in out more attacks there.
one of the deadliest at- It was not immediately
tacks in recent years in clear how many attackers
Lebanon. were involved. According
The attack was quickly to a Lebanese security offi-
claimed by the extremists cial, the first suicide attack-
Islamic State group, which er detonated his explo-
is fighting in neighboring sives’ vest outside a Shiite
Syria and Iraq but has not mosque, while the second
had a recognized affiliate blew himself up inside a
in Lebanon, though the tiny nearby bakery.
Mediterranean country has An apparent third attacker
seen deadly spillovers from was found dead, his legs
the civil war next door. blown off while he still wore
The explosions hit minutes an intact explosives’ belt,
apart during rush hour in said the official, speaking
an area of southern Bei- on condition of anonymity

in line with regulations. The nate blood and appealed
on residents not to gather
official speculated that the at hospital gates so that
ambulanced and emer-
third man may have been gency staff could work un-
hindered.
killed from the explosion set For more than an hour,
ambulances struggled to
off by the second bomber, ferry the wounded and
the dead from the neigh-
as he was reportedly close borhood while Lebanese
troops and Hezbollah gun-
to that blast. men cordoned off the
area, preventing anyone
The Al-Mayadeen TV also from getting close to the
site of the two blasts, less
reported there was a than 50 meters (yards)
apart.
third would-be bomber, “There is a massacre inside
and we will not let you take
and showed a video of a photos,” a Hezbollah mem-
ber screamed at an Asso-
bearded young man with ciated Press photographer
at the scene.
an explosives’ belt. The re- Hezbollah called on people
to leave all coffee shops in
port said he died before he the area, which are usu-
ally packed with customers
was able to detonate his on Thursday evenings, and
urged residents to inform
explosives. the group about any suspi-
cious activities.q
At the scene of the blasts,

residents showed reporters

what they said were metal

pebbles that are usually

put inside an explosive belt

to inflict maximum casual-

ties.

“They targeted civilians,

worshippers, unarmed

people, women and elder-

ly, they only targeted inno-

cent people,” Hezbollah

official Bilal Farhat told The

Associated Press, calling it

a “satanic, terrorist attack.”

Hospitals in southern Beirut

called on people to do-