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Five killed in bomb attack on Lebanese army

AFP - Tuesday, September 30

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AFP) - - Four Lebanese soldiers and a civilian were killed on Monday in a car bombing targeting an army bus on the outskirts of the restive northern city of Tripoli, security and military officials said.

They said 26 soldiers and another civilian were also wounded in the second deadly attack to target the army in as many months, further shaking stability in the troubled country amid efforts at national reconciliation.

"Once again a treacherous hand has reached out to strike at the military establishment in a terrorist attack clearly aimed at undermining efforts at peace and stability," the army said.

The bomb, placed under a parked car in the Bahsas neighbourhood at Tripoli's southern entrance, was packed with nuts and bolts and police suspect the device was detonated by remote control.

It blew up as the bus headed towards Beirut during morning rush-hour in Tripoli, where a similar explosion in August left 14 people dead, including nine soldiers, in the deadliest attack in Lebanon in three years.

The owner of the booby-trapped car was detained for questioning, a security official said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The attack came just two days after a suicide car bombing which left 17 people dead in the capital of neighbouring Syria, Lebanon's former powerbroker.

Syria denounced the Tripoli blast as a "terrorist and criminal act" and expressed "solidarity" with Lebanon, the state-run SANA news agency reported.

Extremism in north Lebanon also poses a threat to Syria, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with the head of the Lebanese journalists union to be published on Tuesday.

"President al-Assad said that northern Lebanon has become a real base for extremism that poses a threat to Syria," Melhem Karam told AFP, referring to excerpts of his interview published by Lebanon's National News Agency.

Karam said the interview was carried out on Sunday, a day after the bombing in the Syrian capital.

The United States condemned what it called the "senseless attack" and said it was "particularly abhorrent as it comes during the (Muslim) holy month of Ramadan."

Iran also condemned the attack with foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi saying "such action serves the goals of the Zionist (Israel) regime, which are aimed at destabilising Lebanon."

Lebanon's parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri said the blast was aimed at torpedoing efforts to stabilise the country, which veered dangerously close to renewed civil war in May.

"This new terrorist attack against the army shows that Lebanon is still being targeted by parties that don't wish for this country to handle its own affairs and to enjoy security and stability," he said.

Police and the army cordoned off the area as forensic experts gathered evidence while residents rushed to the scene or to nearby hospitals to look for their loved ones.

The force of the blast shattered windows and damaged cars nearby.

"Last night we broke the Ramadan fast together and he bid me farewell early this morning before he headed to Beirut," cried Jasem al-Khatib, whose 39-year-old son Anwar, a father of three, was among the casualties.

Sheikh Ali Hussein, whose brother-in-law Ali Mohamed Ali was also killed, said most of the soldiers on the bus hailed from the Jabal Akroum region which straddles the border with Syria.

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora "strongly denounced" the bombing but told reporters he did not see any link between the Damascus and Tripoli attacks.

Several officials said they suspect the attack was aimed at undermining the army's bid to secure Tripoli, which has been rocked by deadly sectarian violence in recent months between Sunni Muslim supporters of the government and their Damascus-backed rivals from the Alawite community.

Tensions had eased in the past few weeks after rival factions signed a reconciliation pact aimed at putting the lid on a protracted political crisis that exploded into deadly violence in Beirut in May.

The army last year fought a 15-week battle with the Al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam militia in a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli that left 400 people dead, including 168 soldiers.

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