Car blast in East Beirut injures eight

A car bomb exploded in an industrial suburb of Christian East Beirut on the eve of Easter, wounding at least eight people and raising fresh ...

A car bomb exploded in an industrial suburb of Christian East Beirut on the eve of Easter, wounding at least eight people and raising fresh fears of a slide back into Lebanon’s violent past. Two of the wounded were Indian workers.

A leading anti-Syrian Opposition figure blamed the Damascus-backed Lebanese security authorities for the blast on Saturday, the third in eight days in the Christian heartland.

Earlier in the day, Lebanon’s Opposition, which also blames Syria and its allies for the killing of former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri on February 14, urged the country’s security chiefs to resign to make way for an international probe into the death.

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‘‘They (Syrian-backed security services) will use all means to try to destroy national accord,’’ Druze Opposition leader Walid Jumblatt told LBC television. ‘‘It is true that today they are targeting Christian areas but before that they targeted … Hariri.’’

Security sources said a Buick car parked at a car repair shop for some time had apparently been rigged with 25 kg of TNT and exploded in the industrial estate in Dikwanah suburb in East Beirut. Lebanon’s National News Agency reported two people killed but security sources said there were eight wounded and no dead.

Al Jazeera said on Sunday it had received a bomb threat against its Beirut office over its coverage of the blast.

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