More than 20 people were killed and nearly 150 were wounded today south of Beirut, Lebanon in what one local priests says is not an “isolated incident.”
Preliminary reports say that the attack, which was near the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, was carried out by a suicide bomber on a motorcycle, followed by a car bomb.
Among the victims was Ibrahim Arsari the cultural attaché of the Iranian Embassy. The embassy, however, released a statement saying it was not the target of the attack.
“Today’s bombing is not an isolated incident,” said director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Lebanon, Fr. Paul Karam, in an interview with Fides. “Sectarian violence serves a purpose, and wants to set fire in order to destabilize the entire Middle East. For their delirious plots they do not have any qualms about killing children who go to school, or adults who go to work or return home.”
“As Christians we share the pain of our people,” he said, “and we keep saying that in no way similar acts of terror can seek justification with religious reasons».
The region has been experiencing unrest in recent months, where a stronghold of the Shiite Hezbollah movement, Sunni jihadists, had already carried out attacks against Shia targets. (A.S.)
