A car bomb exploded in the Christian eastern part of Beirut on Wednesday, killing at least five people and wounding four in an attack that may have targeted a political figure, security sources said.
Television footage showed several cars on fire and bodies being carried away from the scene in a busy commercial and residential area.
”The explosion took place in the Sin el-Fil area near the Metropolitan hotel,” a security source said.
Beirut has been hit by a series of bomb attacks in the past two-and-a-half years, many of them aimed at politicians.
In February 2005, former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri was killed along with 22 other people in a massive car-bomb attack.
Wednesday’s explosion took place before Lebanon’s Parliament is supposed to convene to elect a new president next week. Lebanon has been going through its worst political crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. — Reuters