Three people were killed and dozens injured Tuesday morning in twin car-bomb attacks in a predominantly Christian area of Lebanon. Fears of another round of civil war abound.
A bomb exploded aboard a mini-bus passing through Ayn Alak, northeast of Beirut, during the morning commute to work. Shortly afterward, a second bomb detonated on another mini-bus that pulled to a halt behind the first.
Red Cross officials said three people were killed in the bombings, but initial reports put the fatality figures in the double digits.
The attack came one day before a national gathering commemorating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He, too, was killed in a massive car bomb attack carried out by unknown perpetrators. Several other politicians known for their anti-Syrian positions, and a journalist, have been assassinated since then. In November, Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel, son of former President Amin Gemayel, was shot to death in a Christian suburb of Beirut. The latest car bomb attacks took place near the hometown of the Gemayel family.
Lebanese leaders were quick to analyze the meaning of the attacks in the context of local and international pressures on the country. Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said that the bombings were aimed at destabilizing his country. Although a rival of Siniora, President Emile Lahoud said that what he called a "massacre" was "a clear attempt to foil all internal, regional and international efforts to achieve Lebanese national unity. Every time the Lebanese seem close to an agreement, enemies of Lebanon commit another crime."
Speaking with the Voice of Lebanon radio station, Amin Gemayel claimed that "alien hands" were behind the explosions. "Lebanese do not kill Lebanese," he declared.
Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt told Al-Jazeera that the attacks were meant "to terrorize people who are willing to come to mark the second anniversary of Hariri's death."
A member of the Lebanese parliament representing the Hizbullah, Hassan Fadlallah, said: "All the Lebanese feel that they are targets, and what happened was a harrowing crime that targeted civilians."
Nabil Nekoula, a parliamentarian representing the district where the bombings took place, said, "This is an act to undermine Lebanon, so that we might end up like Iraq, with strife and people leaving their country."
International reactions were of horror and condemnation. French President Jacques Chirac wrote that he was "horrified and dismayed at the appalling attacks" in a letter to Prime Minister Siniora. The "murderers are trying to plunge the whole of Lebanon back into violence," Chirac wrote.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett released a statement condemning the attack, saying it "was clearly targeted to create further tension at a highly sensitive time," just before the Hariri memorial and during ongoing political and civil strife.
Last month, nine people were killed in clashes between supporters and opponents of the Western-backed government of Fouad Siniora. The Hizbullah terror organization has been leading an ongoing protest against the government, seeking to obtain enough power in the cabinet to veto decisions not to its liking or that of its allies.
A sign of things to come, or at least of Lebanese citizens' concerns, according to the YaLibnan news and views web site, is the skyrocketing cost of a Kalashnikov assault rifle in Lebanon today. Ever since Hizbullah opposition to the government took to the streets, YaLibnan reports, the prices of weapons and ammunition have jumped by hundreds of dollars, seven to ten times what they were worth previously. "People are afraid of Hizbullah arms and no longer seem to trust (Hizbullah) claims that it won't use the arms against the Lebanese people," according to the YaLibnan correspondent.