Syria condemns fatal Beirut bombing

Syria has strongly condemned a recent bomb attack in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, which led to the death of several people and wounded many others.

The Syrian parliament (People’s Assembly) said in a statement on Thursday that the “terrorist crime” was ordered by the same parties who lead the terrorists in Syria and Iraq’s western province of al-Anbar, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.

On Thursday, at least five people were killed and more than 70 others injured in a powerful car bomb blast in the Haret Hreik neighborhood in the southern part of the Lebanese capital.

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah’s Al-Manar satellite television said the “terrorist explosion targeted a densely populated residential area, just 150 to 200 meters away from Hezbollah’s political bureau.”

The statement said such crimes are aimed at “compensating” the defeats suffered by the “Wahhabi gangs” at the hands of the Syrian and Iraqi armies.

The elements behind the blast seek to engage Lebanon in a “big sedition,” the statement added.

“Our battle is one, our enemy is one in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia and Russia… as this terrorism is cross-border.”

Syrian Information Omran al-Zoubi also censured the terrorist attack, saying that the perpetrators of such assaults and the countries supporting them must be held accountable.

Hours after the bombing, Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hezbollah’s deputy secretary general, called for “political understanding and the quick formation of a national unity cabinet” to avoid the destruction of Lebanon. “Hezbollah will not trade accusations and will not respond to the allegations.”

Lebanon’s President Michel Sleiman, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri were among senior Lebanese officials who denounced the terrorist attack.