7 Killed, 50 Injured by Beirut Car Bomb

A car bomb killed seven people and wounded 50 in Muslim West Beirut today in an attack apparently aimed against Syria’s military presence in Lebanon, witnesses and police sources said.

They said the car, packed with 33 pounds of TNT, blew up a few yards from a Syrian checkpoint and the offices of the Syrian-backed Arab Baath Party in the Syrian-controlled Cola area, site of at least four major car bombings since civil war erupted in 1975.

The blast instantly killed three Lebanese soldiers and four civilians who were driving through the district, witnesses said. A Syrian soldier said three Syrians were among those taken to the hospital.

The explosion was the latest in a string of bloody attacks apparently launched by opponents of the presence of 25,000 Syrian soldiers in Lebanon.

The charred bodies of the victims were dragged from their wrecked cars as rescue teams rushed to evacuate the wounded.

“How can I stop screaming when they murdered my son? I can hardly recognize him,” wailed a woman who later fainted.

“What is the purpose of living anymore in this crazy city? They are trying to kill us wherever we go,” said a resident as she stared at her destroyed home.

The car exploded in a street packed with civilians going to Friday prayers at a nearby mosque. Syrian soldiers carrying machine guns and rocket launchers immediately sealed off the area.