Car Bomb Kills 4 in Christian Suburb of Beirut

A powerful car bomb exploded near an Armenian Orthodox church in Beirut’s Christian suburb of Antelias on Friday, killing four people and wounding at least 22.

Police said the blast, the second car bombing in the northern suburb in 10 days, could have caused higher casualties had it not been for the Good Friday holiday, which reduced the number of people in the area.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the 9 a.m. explosion, which was seen as another challenge to efforts by President Elias Hrawi’s government to end nearly 16 years of civil strife in which 150,000 have died.

A police spokesman said a black Chevrolet sedan was rigged with about 200 pounds of explosives.

Shortly after the explosion echoed across Beirut, ambulances and fire engines, their sirens wailing, sped to the blast scene.

Lebanese soldiers fired their M-16 assault rifles in the air to disperse civilians who had rushed to inquire about relatives who were passing through the coastal suburb when the car bomb went off.

The fatalities included a Lebanese army private and a policeman. The two others could not be immediately identified. The police spokesman said most of the injured were treated for glass wounds and discharged; 10 were hospitalized.

The explosion came one day after Hrawi’s government announced a further step toward ending the civil war by demanding that all militias hand over their weapons to the army by April 30.