Post date: Aug 24, 2013 10:15:44 AM
At least 42 people die in the Lebanese city of Tripoli after bombs hit two mosques, intensifying sectarian strife that spills over from civil war in neighbouring Syria. Local Lebanese media report 45 dead.
TRIPOLI, LEBANON (AUGUST 24, 2013) (REUTERS) - Tension was high on the streets of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Saturday (August 24), after bombs hit two mosques on Friday (August 23), killing at least 42 people and wounding hundreds. Local Lebanese media are reporting a death toll of 45.
The apparently co-ordinated blasts - the biggest and deadliest in Tripoli since the end of Lebanon's own civil war - struck as locals were finishing Friday prayers in the largely Sunni Muslim city. Lebanese officials appealed for calm.The explosions in Tripoli, 70 km (40 miles) from the capital Beirut, came a week after a huge car bomb killed at least 24 people in a part of Beirut controlled by theShi'ite Muslim militant movement Hezbollah.
A recent resurgence of sectarian violence in Lebanon has been stoked by the conflagration in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is fighting a largely Sunni-led rebellion. Both Hezbollah and radical Sunni groups in Lebanon have sent fighters over the border to support opposing sides in Syria.
The first explosion hit the Taqwa mosque, frequented by hardline Sunni Islamists, and killed at least 14 people there, according to accounts earlier on Friday.
Further deaths were reported from a second blast a few minutes later outside theal-Salam mosque, which the Interior Ministry said was hit by a car laden with 100 kg (220 pounds) of explosives.