Beirut suicide blast kills security officer

AFP

Beirut

An overnight suicide blast in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Hezbollah’s main bastion, killed a security officer who had tried to stop the bomber, a Lebanese security source said yesterday.

No one has claimed the attack, but an audio recording posted on YouTube by a Sunni militant group said there would be more “strikes” if the Shia movement does not pull out of Syria.

The explosion happened at around midnight near an army checkpoint and cafe where football fans were watching a World Cup match.

An army statement said a suicide attacker driving a white Mercedes “blew himself up at an army checkpoint at the Tayuneh roundabout (in southern Beirut), wounding several civilians”.

The official National News Agency reported 12 people wounded.

Yesterday, a security source said a high-ranking General Security Agency officer whom the army had reported missing had “been martyred”.

Remains were undergoing DNA testing to confirm that they were indeed those of Abdel Karim Hodroj, the source added.

The security source said Hodroj and his colleague Ali Jaber, who was wounded, “were passing through the area... They felt a vehicle that was going against the traffic flow was suspicious. 

“Then the vehicle stopped in the middle of the road, and a man got out. (Hodroj and his colleague) stopped him and questioned him. The man said his car key was broken, and he couldn’t drive anymore,” the source said.

The driver’s suspicious behaviour led Jaber to go to the nearby army checkpoint to report him.

“Hodroj remained with the suicide attacker to ensure he wouldn’t get away,” the security source said.

Jaber was 30m away when the explosion happened.

The bombing came three days after a suicide attack in eastern Lebanon killed one person and wounded 30.

Southern Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah, has been targeted by attacks for months.

Most incidents were claimed by Sunni extremists because Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters into Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces battling rebels.

Yesterday, a radical Sunni cleric warned Hezbollah in a voice recording distributed on YouTube of more possible strikes.

Sheikh Sirajeddine Zureiqat, who is linked to the Abdallah Azzam Brigades, did not claim responsibility for Monday’s attack.

He said: “O party of Iran (Hezbollah), you who are an occupying force in Lebanon, you will not enjoy a single day of safety, until safety returns to the people of Syria and Lebanon.”

“We will continue to strike you, as long as you continue to be present in Syria.”