BEIRUT, 16 January 2008 — Three people were killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast that targeted a US Embassy car in the Lebanese capital yesterday, the latest in a string of attacks in the troubled country. The bombing on a seafront road on the northern edge of Beirut came amid a deep political crisis in Lebanon and coincided with a Middle East tour by US President George W. Bush, who was in Saudi Arabia yesterday.
“The bomb was detonated as the US car was driving by along with another vehicle carrying civilians between the Dawra and Qarantina areas,” a senior Lebanese security official told AFP. He said three people were killed, including a Syrian national who was on a motorbike and another two civilians in a passing car, and 21 injured.
The US State Department said the Lebanese driver of the car slightly hurt but that no US nationals were injured. “It’s early days and the early moments after this bombing, so our embassy people, security people working with the Lebanese government are going to take a look at the circumstances of the blast,” said spokesman Sean McCormack, giving a death toll of four Lebanese civilians.
The only passenger in the car, a US Foreign Service employee who is not an American citizen, emerged unscathed, he added. US diplomatic and military missions in Lebanon were attacked on a number of occasions during the 1975-1990 civil war, when Islamic fundamentalists also kidnapped several US hostages.
