UN Condemns Deadly Car Bombings in Lebanon

The U.N. Security Council has
condemned the double car bomb blasts
in Lebanon Friday that killed at least 42
people and left more than 500 wounded.

The 15-member council appealed to all
Lebanese people to preserve national
unity in the face of attempts to
undermine Lebanon's stability.

Separately, U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon urged Lebanese citizens to
"exercise restraint, remain united and to
support their state institutions,"
particularly Lebanon's security forces.

Friday's attacks took place in the
northern city of Tripoli.
Targeting mosques
One of the bombs exploded outside the
Taqwa mosque as midday prayers were
ending. That mosque is where Sheik
Salem Rafei, a Salafi cleric opposed to
Lebanon's militant Shi'ite Hezbollah
group, usually prays. It was not clear
whether he was inside.

The second bomb went off about five
minutes later outside the Al Salam
mosque in Tripoli's Al Mina district.
Hassan Kamel, who was there, said,
"The sheikh was in the mosque praying
and suddenly the explosion happened."

Kamel said "destruction and bodies and
wounded" were everywhere. "We
condemn everything that is happening
here in Tripoli," he added.

Murky battle lines

There was no immediate claim of
responsibility. The Shi'ite militia group
Hezbollah condemned the attacks,
saying they appeared to be an effort to
incite more sectarian violence in
Lebanon.

Tensions have been rising in Lebanon
during the civil war in neighboring Syria,
especially in Tripoli, where Sunni
Muslims who support the armed
uprising in Syria have clashed
repeatedly with Alawites who support
President Bashar al-Assad.

An anti-Hezbollah Islamist group calling
itself the Brigades of Aisha said it
carried out a car bombing last week in
Rweiss, a southern suburb of Beirut that
is a Hezbollah stronghold. That blast
killed 22 people and wounded more than
200.

Residents gather around a crater outside one of two mosques in Lebanon's northern city of TRIPOLI