TRIPOLI: Four Lebanese soldiers were killed yesterday in a car bombing targeting an army bus on the outskirts of the restive northern city of Tripoli, security and military officials said.
They said 26 soldiers and two civilians were also wounded in the second deadly attack to target the army in two months, further shaking stability in the troubled country amid efforts at national reconciliation.
“Once again a treacherous hand has reached out to strike at the military establishment in a terrorist attack clearly aimed at undermining efforts at peace and stability,” an army statement said.
The bomb, placed under a parked car in the Bahsas neighborhood at Tripoli’s southern entrance, was packed with nuts and bolts and police suspect the device was detonated by remote control.
It blew up as the bus headed toward Beirut during morning rush-hour in Tripoli, which has been rocked by a wave of deadly sectarian violence this year.
The owner of the booby-trapped car, which was transformed into a blackened and mangled pile of metal, was detained for questioning, a security official said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The attack came just two days after a suicide car bombing which left 17 people dead in the capital of neighboring Syria.
Syria denounced the Tripoli blast as a “terrorist and criminal act” and expressed “solidarity” with Lebanon, the state-run SANA news agency reported.
Other countries to condemn the attack included Spain and France, which formerly had a colonial mandate in Lebanon. Lebanon’s parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri said the blast was aimed at torpedoing efforts to stabilize the country.
