Several people have been killed in a powerful explosion that rocked the stronghold of the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group in a southern suburb of the capital Beirut.
Reuters witness at the scene said at least five buildings were damaged and many cars in the area were destroyed. The blast sent a column of black smoke over the densely populated area in the south of the Lebanese capital, Reuters reported.
Lebanese media reported it took place in the Rweiss district, a heavily Shiite district that is one of Hezbollah’s bastions of support, according to AP.
Last month, a car bomb exploded in another south Beirut suburb, wounding more than 50 people.
The violence raises the specter of Lebanon being pulled into the increasingly sectarian civil war raging next door in Syria.
The explosion came a month after a huge car bomb wounded 53people in the same district, a stronghold of Hezbollah which has been fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria’s civil war, according to Reuters.
Several minutes after Thursday’s blast, live television footage showed fires still burning in the street where the explosion took place. The facades of neighboring residential buildings were also badly damaged, Reuters reported.
Al-Mayadeen television said some people were still trapped inside buildings at the scene, close to the Sayyed al-Shuhadaa (Martyrs) complex, where Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah often addresses his followers.
Sectarian tensions have been high in Lebanon following the intervention of Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah in support of Assad against a two-year revolt led by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority. Hezbollah also fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006.
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