Syrian Islamist Suicide Car Bomb Kills Four in Shi’ite Suburb of Beirut

Second Attack on Same Neighborhood This Month

For the fourth time in as many weeks, a suicide car bombing has torn through a Shi’ite neighborhood in Lebanon, this time attacking the same Beirut suburb as earlier this month, and killing four people, wounding 35 others.

As with the previous bombing, Jabhat al-Nusra’s Lebanon auxiliary claimed credit for the attack, saying it was “retaliation” for Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian Civil War.

And just like the last time, there was no indication that any of the victims were actually Hezbollah officials. Rather the attack seemed to hit the neighborhood on the assumption that a Shi’ite neighborhood must be a Hezbollah stronghold.

Jabhat al-Nusra is one of several Syrian rebel factions operated by al-Qaeda, and has recently been dubbed the “good al-Qaeda” by Western media, to differentiate it from the al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) faction. Tactically, however, Nusra remains centered on using suicide attacks against civilian targets.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.