Four killed as suicide bombers target Iranian centre in Beirut

Twin suicide bombing attack by radical Sunni group follows arrest of leading al-Qaeda-linked militant

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Emergency personnel work at the site of a bomb explosion in a southern suburb of Beirut. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:29pm, 19 Feb 2014Updated: 6:04pm, 19 Feb 2014

A twin suicide bombing hit the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut on Wednesday during the morning rush hour, killing at least four people and wounding 70 in an attack targeting Iran’s cultural centre, security sources said.

Security sources said the blasts were caused by two suicide attackers, one in a car and the second on a motorcycle. The same tactics were used by suicide bombers who attacked the Iranian embassy in November.

A militant group linked to al-Qaeda, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attacks on Twitter, saying the Iranian culture centre was the target.

A wounded man is carried from the site of an explosion near the Kuwaiti embassy and Iran's cultural centre, in the suburb of Beir Hassan, Beirut. Photo: AP

The windows of a nearby orphanage were blown out by the blasts. Children were peering out and screaming “bomb, bomb.” Some were crying. A man working at a sweet shop opposite the bomb site said the blast shook the entire area.

“We heard one explosion and then another,” he said.

Human remains were found nearby. The casualties included a number of children.

The area is controlled by the Shiite movement Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in neighbouring Syria in a conflict that has fuelled tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Lebanon.