University Blast in Beirut Killed 1 and Injured 8

A powerful car bomb that demolished the administration building of the American University of Beirut before dawn Friday killed one person and slightly wounded eight others, officials said.

The blast ripped off the back of the four-story College Hall and cracked and buckled its three other facades. Virtually all the buildings on the 70-acre campus were damaged, with the severity depending on their proximity to the blast.

Attempts to save Munir Salha, 41, a university employee who was buried underneath rubble, were unsuccessful. University officials said Salha, who lived outside Beirut, often slept in an office in the university rather than commute daily.

The school was considered a likely target for Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim factions who have threatened attacks on American interests here to protest the Arab-Israeli peace talks in Madrid. But by nightfall, no group had claimed responsibility.

Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, often associated with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah group, denounced the attack in his Friday sermon. Fadlallah and Lebanese Prime Minister Omar Karami both laid blame for the attack on Israel.

The 120-year-old building that was bombed is the oldest on the campus of the university, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. Acting President Makhluf Haddadin announced that the university will resume classes on Monday. The day was marked by gestures from students, faculty, employees and an unannounced visit by the president of Lebanon, Elias Hrawi, who called the university “a beacon of culture” and expressed his outrage at the destruction.

Campus security has been an issue for months, with faculty members complaining about students and individuals not associated with the university parking their cars on the school grounds. “Anyone can get on this place. They slip the gate guards a little money, or use wasta (influence),” said a foreign faculty member.