Lebanon PM holds emergency meeting as nation mourns bomb victims

The explosions were the first attacks in more than a year to target a Hezbollah stronghold inside Lebanon, and came at time when the group is stepping up its involvement in the Syrian civil war – a fight which has brought Sunni Islamist threats and invective against the Iran-backed Shi’ite group.

The attack was quickly claimed by Islamic State group, which is fighting in neighboring Syria and Iraq.

The explosions detonated within 150 meters (490 feet) and five minutes of each other, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said, shaking an open-air market and other parts of the Bourj al-Barajneh district in southern Beirut.

The attacks were the deadliest to hit a Hezbollah stronghold since the group entered Syria’s civil war in support of President Bashar Assad. The area has been hit in the past and Sunni militant groups have threatened to carry out more attacks there.

A pair of suicide bombings struck southern Beirut on Thursday, killing 43 people and leaving shattered glass and blood on the streets, Lebanese authorities said.

As per reports it was not immediately clear how many attackers were involved.

An apparent third suicide attacker was found dead, his legs blown off while he still wore an intact explosives’ belt, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Another daily, al-Diyyar, showed gruesome pictures of the bodies of the bombers, including a bloody disembodied head.

“After the apostates gathered in the area, one of the knights of martyrdom detonated his explosive belt in the midst of them”, the statement said. It mentioned nearly as an afterthought that it had targeted Hezbollah, the Shiite militant organization that backs the Syrian government in the civil war raging next door.

IS subsequently issued a statement saying that it was behind the bombings.

ISIS, which does not have a large presence in Lebanon, claimed responsibility for a auto bombing in the capital previous year.

World leaders also condemned the bombings, which French President Francois Hollande called “despicable”.

Lebanese Prime Minister Salam condemned the attacks as “unjustifiable” and called on Lebanon’s rival factions to unite against “plans to create strife”.

Thursday’s bombing is the first such attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs since mid-2014.