Powerful Blast Shakes Lebanese Capital
10 years, 3 months ago - December 27, 2013
BEIRUT, Lebanon — A powerful explosion shook central Beirut Friday morning, rattling windows and sending a black plume of smoke into the sky.
Local television broadcast images of the blast scene in front of the Starco building, a downtown tower notable for having survived unscathed through the civil war from 1975 to 1990 that gutted much of the surrounding area. Several dead bodies and many wounded people can be seen in the footage, and the sound of ambulances converging on the site of the explosion can be heard.
It is the first bomb to hit downtown Beirut in several years, although several car bombs have been detonated in the southern suburbs in recent months. The bombing on Friday brings the violence, which many believe is linked to the war in neighboring Syria, to the heart of Beirut’s downtown business district.
