Beirut Blast Reportedly Kills Brother of Hezbollah Security Chief

A car packed with 110 pounds of explosives blew up in a Beirut suburb on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding at least 15.

Early reports said one of the dead was Fuad Mughniyeh, the brother of Imad Mughniyeh, security chief of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group that is thought to have masterminded the kidnaping of Westerners in Lebanon in the 1980s.

Hezbollah, which has not confirmed the relationship of the victim to Imad Mughniyeh, claimed the attack was Israeli retaliation for Hezbollah’s recent stepped-up attacks on Israeli positions in south Lebanon.

The explosion occurred in the Bir al Abed district of Beirut’s Shiite Muslim suburbs.

Police said the explosives-laden car, a gray Volkswagen, blew up about 4:45 p.m. outside a plumbing and tile warehouse owned by Fuad Mughniyeh.

The blast collapsed part of the warehouse roof and left a crater 3 yards wide and 3 feet deep.

The burned carcass of the car was thrown across the street, crashing onto the roof of a gas station. Three other cars were badly damaged.

Witness Hassan Abdallah, his face black from his proximity to the blast, had been changing a tire across the street and was thrown several yards.

He temporarily lost consciousness and said he owed his life to the fact that the car had taken the brunt of the blast. His Renault sedan was a blackened heap of twisted metal.

Hezbollah issued a statement blaming Israel.

Israel last week threatened Hezbollah and warned that its members would continue to be targets if they continued attacks on the Israeli-occupied area of south Lebanon.

Three Israeli soldiers and nine members of the Lebanese militia allied with Israel have been killed in the past three weeks in Hezbollah attacks.