Don’t Blame Us for University Bombing, Hezbollah Says

The leader of Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim group, claimed Sunday that the bombing of the American University of Beirut was staged to frame his group.

One person was killed and eight people were wounded in Friday’s car-bomb explosion. The U.S.-affiliated university’s administration building, clock tower and library were blown up, and damage was estimated at $125 million.

No group has claimed responsibility. But pro-Iranian Shiite fundamentalist factions had threatened to strike at U.S. interests to protest Arab-Israeli peace talks.

“The whole world knows that this university has been within Hezbollah’s reach for so many years if we wanted to attack it,” Sheik Abbas Moussawi told a rally in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

“The mastermind of this bombing wants to wreck this country anew by striking at academic institutions,” Moussawi said.

The bombing was denounced by Shiite, leftist and Palestinian factions in Lebanon, who blamed Israel’s Mossad secret service.

There were hundreds of car bombings during the 1975-90 civil war between Lebanon’s Muslims and Christians.

Hezbollah, or Party of God, is believed to be the umbrella for Shiite factions holding eight Western hostages.

Elsewhere, two Fatah guerrillas and one fundamentalist were shot to death and 10 Palestinians were wounded in a clash in Sidon between two rival groups, security sources said Sunday.