Bomb Kills 12 at Mosque in Tripoli : 58 Wounded in Holy Day Explosion in Lebanon’s No. 2 City

A car bomb exploded in front of a packed mosque in the northern port of Tripoli today--the Muslim holy day--and state radio said at least 12 people were killed and 58 wounded.

Police said the blast at 12:45 p.m. punched a huge hole in the wall of Imam Ali Mosque and heavily damaged scores of buildings in a 500-yard radius. The radio said that 10 people were killed outright and that two injured people later died in a hospital.

The Lebanese Red Cross appealed for blood donations to help the victims in Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city with a population of half a million 50 miles north of Beirut.

Mosques in predominantly Muslim Tripoli normally are packed for the Friday prayers that begin at noon.

A Tripoli resident reached by telephone said the bombing occurred in the Tel neighborhood, which is controlled by the fundamentalist Tawhid Islamic militia.

“It was pretty loud. . . . From my house four blocks away, I can see thick black smoke billowing,” said the resident, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Mustafa.

Mustafa said he heard machine gun bursts as ambulances raced to and from the blast scene with wailing sirens.

The city is the hometown of Prime Minister Rashid Karami, who brought Lebanon’s principal warlords into a Syrian-supported national coalition Cabinet last April in an attempt to resolve the nation’s almost-10-year civil war.

There have been a number of car bombings and other explosions recently in Beirut and central Lebanese mountain towns.

The Tawheed Islamic militia had been engaged in an on-again-off-again war for dominance in Tripoli with the Syrian-backed Arabian Knights militia of the Arab Democratic Party. The two sides signed a peace agreement under Syria’s sponsorship three months ago.