Last update - 00:00 22/05/2007
Beirut blast wounds at least 5 people, causes extensive damage
By The Associated Press
An explosion rocked one of Beirut's Muslim neighborhoods late Monday, injuring five people and starting fires in cars and apartments and wrecking one of the Lebanese capital's posh districts.
Among the injured were two boys aged 7 and 11, police said. The others were all men.
Several senior public personalities live in Sunni Muslim district, that is also home to the high-end Verdun shopping center. The area also houses the Russian Cultural Center, restaurants, schools and banks.
It was not clear whether the bomb was placed inside or under a parked four-wheel-drive vehicle, but police estimated the bomb was made up of 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of explosives.
Television footage showed a car burning near a building as a fire engine doused the flames with water. An elderly man with a wound to his head was seen being carried away by pedestrians.
Several nearby cars had their windows blown out from the blast, and a high-floor apartment in a nearby building was in flames. Pieces of wood and glass littered the streets and hung from balconies, as security forces and civilians crowded the scene.
On Sunday night, a bomb near another major shopping center in the Christian sector killed a woman and wounded 12 others.
The violence came as Lebanese troops fought heavy battles with militants in northern Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared, in which more than 50 people were killed in the last two days.
Beirut and surrounding suburbs have been hit by a series of explosions in the last two years, particularly targeting Christian areas in which the U.S.-backed majority coalition has blamed on Syria.
Sunday's explosion occurred across the street from the major ABC shopping center shortly before midnight in Ashrafieh, an upscale neighborhood of the Christian sector of the Lebanese capital. A 63-year-old woman was killed and 12 others injured.
The explosions also come as the UN Security Council is considering whether to impose an international tribunal in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri after Lebanon's government and the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah-led opposition failed to agree on approving it.
A UN investigation into the 2005 assassination has been expanded to include the series of bombings some blame on Syria. A U.N. investigation has linked senior Syrian security officials and allies in the Lebanese security services to Hariri's 2005 truck bombing murder while Syria controlled Lebanon.
Damascus has denied involvement in Hariri's death and the other explosions, but Syria was forced to withdraw its army from Lebanon two months after the assassination, ending a 29-year presence.