3 Die, 25 Hurt in East Beirut Car Bomb Blast

A car bomb exploded today in Christian East Beirut, killing three people and wounding 25, and touching off a fire that destroyed dozens of cars, police and news reports said.

Among those wounded was former Information Minister Joseph Skaff and three of his bodyguards. They were driving through the Dora district at the time of the 9 a.m. blast, officials said.

A police spokesman, insisting on anonymity, said Skaff, a Christian parliamentarian, suffered cuts and burns but that neither he nor his companions were seriously injured.

The other casualties were pedestrians, motorists or shopkeepers.

Young Driver Flees

Voice of Lebanon, the main radio station in East Beirut run by the Christian Falange Party, said the bomb-laden automobile was parked near the Mercedes-Benz dealership by a young man who escaped before it blew up.

The radio station said 43 cars parked in the street were destroyed, most of them by a “huge fire” that burned many of the autos before being extinguished an hour later.

No group claimed responsibility for the blast.

The explosion, so powerful it was heard across the Lebanese capital, was the 13th car bombing in Lebanon this year. By police count, 104 people have been killed and 378 wounded in previous attacks.

Today’s explosion took place an hour before Christian parliamentary deputies were scheduled to meet in Bkirki north of Beirut to name a presidential candidate after vetoing a Syrian-American agreement to nominate Deputy Mikhail Daher.