15 Killed When Grenade Hits Beirut School Bus

A rifle-fired grenade slammed into a school bus and exploded during Christian factional fighting Wednesday, killing 11 schoolchildren and at least four other people.

A police spokesman said the bus was hit while crossing into mostly Christian East Beirut in the afternoon. It was bringing children back from school in southern Beirut. The grenade ignited the fuel tank.

“It couldn’t be determined who fired the rifle grenade,” said the spokesman, who declined to be identified.

A radio station run by Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun, the Lebanese army commander, accused gunmen of Samir Geagea’s rival Lebanese Forces militia of firing at the bus. However, Geagea’s command denied responsibility.

Aoun and Geagea have been involved in a bloody power struggle for control of Lebanon’s 310-square-mile Christian enclave for more than two months. The showdown has killed hundreds of people, mostly civilians.

“Many of the pupils yelled for help as we tried to extinguish the fire. At least one teacher also was among the dead, along with the driver,” said a soldier at the scene where the bus was hit

“I survived by a miracle,” a 30-year-old teacher identified only as Teresa told reporters at Sacre Coeur Hospital, where many victims were taken. “A roaring fire suddenly erupted and quickly spread aboard the bus. I slipped through a window near my seat.”

The police spokesman said the bus belonged to the Mraijeh Elementary School, a new private school in southern Beirut. It was not immediately clear why students from East Beirut were attending school in the southern section of the capital, a Shiite Muslim stronghold.

The gutted wreckage of the yellow bus straddled a curb in an Aoun-controlled area, a few yards east of the gateway. It is the only crossing along the so-called Green Line that separates East Beirut from mostly Muslim West Beirut.

The bus was hit a few hours after a blast ripped through Aoun’s Defense Ministry in the suburb of Yarze, killing at least two men.

Aoun’s forces said in a communique that the blast occurred when soldiers were moving confiscated ammunition. However, Muslim radio reports said the explosion was aimed at Aoun’s troops.