Twin terrorist attacks target Iran embassy in Beirut

Crescent International

Muharram 15, 1435 2013-11-19

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

The main terrorist sponsors in the Middle East--Saudi Arabia and zionist Israel--collaborating closely with each other, appear to be behind the twin suicide attacks earlier today in Beirut. Their target was the embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Lebanon. At least 23 people have been killed and 146 injured according to Lebanese health ministry officials.

Beirut, Crescent-online
November 19, 2013, 08:57 DST

Two terrorist attacks on Iran’s embassy in Beirut killed at least 23 people and injured 146 others today, according to Lebanese security officials. A suicide bomber on a motorcycle first hit the embassy gate. Two minutes later a much bigger suicide car bombing yards away from the embassy shook the entire neighborhood causing most of the casualties.

There are conflicting reports about the death of Iran’s Cultural Attache, Ibrahim Ansari who was about to enter the embassy gate when the first suicide bomber struck. The Associated Press (AP) claimed that Iranian Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi admitted that Ansari had died of wounds in a Beirut hospital.

The AP based its story on Rokanabadi’s statement to Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV from inside the embassy compound, in which he said that Ansari had taken his post in Lebanon a month ago and was overseeing all regional cultural activities. Ambassador Rokanabadi also said all embassy personnel inside the building were safe.

Iran’s Press TV, however, denied in its report that Ansari had died. It said he was seriously injured in the attack but was receiving treatment at a Beirut hospital. In a subsequent news on its website, Press TV said, the Cultural Attache had died.

The street in Beirut’s Jinah district targeted by the suicide bombers is largely under the control of the resistance group, Hizbullah. It includes a building where some of the Iranian diplomats and their families live.

In such situations, the immediate focus is on saving those injured in the blasts and putting out the fires. The identity of the perpetrators and those behind them are also important questions.

The Abdullah Azzam brigades, a Lebanon-based al Qaeda affiliate, said it was behind the suicide attacks, according to the Twitter page of a cleric linked to the group.

“The Abdullah Azzam brigades - the Hussein bin Ali cells - may they please God - are behind the attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut,” Sirajeddine Zuraiqat, the group's religious guide, posted on Twitter.

Iranian ambassador Rokanabadi as well as Marzieh Afkham, spokeswoman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry in Tehran blamed Israel for the attacks while Hizbullah and Syrian officials indirectly blamed Saudi Arabia. “Each of the terrorist attacks that strike in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq reek of petrodollars,” a Syrian government statement said.

Perhaps both are correct: Saudi Arabia now works in tandem with Zionist Israel to destabilize the region as both are on the verge of losing the game in Syria where they have together with a number of other regional players financed, armed and trained the terrorists.

Saudi-financed terrorists have escalated their attacks on Hizbullah strongholds in Lebanon in recent months as they lose the battle in Syria.

“We tell those who carried out the attack, you will not be able to break us,” Hizbullah MP Ali Mikdad told Al-Mayadeen TV. “We got the message and we know who sent it and we know how to retaliate.”

Previous large-scale attacks targeting Hizbullah strongholds include the August 15 car bombing in the southern Beirut suburb of Ruwaiss that killed 27 people and wounded more than 300. A week later (August 23), at least 42 people were killed and over 500 others were injured in explosions outside two mosques in the northern city of Tripoli.

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