Blog 8

Today, Friday October 19, 2012, there was a huge car bombing in Beirut that killed 8 people and injured 80 more people. The explosion killed a top Lebanese security official whose investigations implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri, seven years ago. The bomb was detonated during rush hour in the middle of the Lebanese capital, which increased fears that Syria’s war is spilling over into Lebanon. The explosion was right next to a Christian Phalange Party’s office that was located in a mostly Christian area. Among the dead from the explosion was Wissam al-Hassan, the head of a Lebanese intelligence agency who had also uncovered a recent bomb plot that led to the arrest of a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician. Friday’s bombing is being linked and compared to the civil war in Lebanon that passed just recently in 1990. Many Lebanese religious groups are divided on whether they want to support Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, or support the rebels trying to overthrow him. The war in Syria, which has killed 30,000 people in the past 19 months, has pitted mostly Sunni insurgents against Assad, who is from the Alawite sect linked to Shi'ite Islam. This attack on Beirut could prove to bring dark days for the city. After recovering from their civil war they’re finally starting to have a functional society which has shown increases in tourism, but all this could be jeopardized if the Syrian war isn’t kept under control. Hopefully they can find a plan for action that can bring upon peace.

http://news.yahoo.com/explosion-rocks-central-beirut-witnesses-120610495.html