The World : East Beirut Bomb Kills 9
A bomb hidden in a child’s school bag exploded in a shopping plaza in Christian East Beirut, killing nine people and wounding 22, police said. The bomb, estimated to contain 55 pounds of TNT, wrecked a dozen shops and set an apartment ablaze but failed to damage its presumed target, an office of President Amin Gemayel’s Falangist Party, 35 yards away. It was the sixth bombing in 24 hours in the Lebanese capital’s Christian sector. Clashes and bombings have increased in Beirut since mid-January, when Gemayel in effect scuttled a Syrian-arranged peace plan. Muslim and Druze militias allied with Syria have been targeting Gemayel’s Falangist forces ever since.
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