At least 15 killed, 50 injured in Beirut twin blasts

Twin bombings rocked Tuesday Lebanon's capital city of Beirut in Hezbollah's stronghold at the southern suburbs near the Iranian embassy, leaving at least 15 killed and 50 others injured. According to the state-run National News agency (NNA) a suicide bomber blew himself up in a parking lot near the embassy at 10:15 a.m. followed by another suicide bomber who blew a bobby-trapped car near the embassy. A local security source estimated the weight of the explosive materials used in the explosion to be around 100 kgs of TNT. Al Mayadeen TV reported that the civil defense teams managed to put off the huge fire that erupted due to the explosions and is working on rescuing the people who were trapped in the homes. Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati called the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon Ghadanfar Roknabadi and sent him condolences for the killed. On August 15 a booby trapped car bomb exploded in the Rouweiss neighborhood in the southern suburbs killing 15 people and injuring more than 150 others. On August 23 a twin car bombing targeted two mosques in the northern port city of Tripoli leaving 47 killed and more than 350 others injured. Both bombings were related to the Syrian crisis and the involvement of Lebanese political factions, particularly Hezbollah in the ongoing fighting in the neighboring country. Lebanon's President Michel Suleiman has called on all the Lebanese to respect the official policy of disassociation adopted by the government, and refrain from getting involved in the Syrian crisis.