Beirut mourns 44 killed in bomb attacks

Lebanon on Friday mourned 44 people killed in south Beirut in a twin bombing claimed by the ISIS group, the bloodiest such attack in years.

The Red Cross said at least 239 people were also wounded, several in critical condition, in the blasts that hit a busy shopping street in Burj al-Barajneh, a neighbourhood where the Shia Hezbollah movement is popular. The attack harked back to a campaign against Hezbollah between 2013 and 2014, ostensibly in revenge for its military support of regime forces in neighbouring Syria’s civil war.

But it was the largest attack ever claimed by ISIS in Lebanon, and among the deadliest bombings to hit the country since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. On Friday, families prepared to collect the bodies of loved ones from hospitals as the country observed a day of national mourning. Schools were closed for the day, and politicians across Lebanon’s fractured political spectrum condemned the attack.

The blasts ripped through a street market in the poor, mainly Shia neighbourhood, staining the ground red with blood and gutting several shops. One witness told local television: “When the second blast went off, I thought the world had ended.” The Army said the attack was carried out by two suicide bombers, and that the body of a third who failed to detonate his explosive device was found at the scene of the second blast.

But ISIS gave a different version claiming responsibility for the attack that circulated online. It said “soldiers of the Caliphate” first detonated explosives planted on a motorbike on the street. “After the apostates gathered in the area, one of the knights of martyrdom detonated his explosive belt in the midst of them,” the statement added.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged Lebanon “not allow this despicable act to destroy the relative calm that has prevailed in the country over the past year”.