At least 42 killed as explosions hit Lebanon\'s Tripoli

Residents gather at the site of an explosion near the Taqwa Mosque in Tripoli Two powerful explosions, minutes apart, killed at 42 people in Lebanon\'s main northern city of Tripoli on Friday, according to medical and security sources , while Lebanese media reports said the death toll topped 60.
Either figure would be the highest death toll in an attack since Lebanon\'s 1975-1990 civil war.
The first blast rocked the city centre near the home of outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati, although his office said he was not in Tripoli at the time.
According to Al Jazeera news channel, the bomb went off outside al-Salam mosque in the Mina area of central Tripoli, as worshippers were leaving after Friday afternoon prayers.
The second explosion occurred outside the al-Taqwa Mosque in the city\'s Abu Ali Square, near the port of the restive city, said the National News Agency.
Tripoli has a Sunni Muslim majority and has been marred by deadly violence linked to the 29-month conflict in neighbouring Syria.

Sources told Arab Today that the prayer leaders at both mosques adhere to the hardline Salafist interpretation of Islam.
However Lebanese Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told Arab Today that the explosions did not target any specific political or religious figure in Tripoli.
He also denied reports that the explosions targeted General Ashraf Refi, former Director General of the Internal Security Forces, confirming that General Refi and his family are safe, however their home, which is close to the site of one  of the explosions, had been damaged.
Syria\'s civil war has sharply polarized the country along sectarian lines and between supporters and opponents of the regime of President Bashar Assad. Tripoli has previously seen clashes between Sunnis and Alawites, a Shiite offshoot sect to which Assad belongs.
Hundreds of furious people gathered outside the Al-Taqwa mosque shouting curses at Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.
The powerful Shiite movement, whose militia have been fighting for months alongside Assad\'s troops, linked the Tripoli attacks to the one in Beirut on August 15, which killed 22 people and injured more than 300.
It said they were part of a plan to \"plunge Lebanon into chaos and destruction\".
Former premier Saad Hariri, a Sunni and Hezbollah opponent, said the \"authors of dissension do not want Lebanon to live in peace for one minute; they want the killing machine to mow down the lives of innocents across Lebanon\".
Additional source: AFP