Nasrallah to deliver speech on bombing in Lebanon’s Zahiyeh

Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah will give a speech on the recent bombing in a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, which led to the death of over 20 people.

Nasrallah will address the public on the powerful car bomb explosion on Thursday, which rocked the Shia neighborhood of Zahiyeh, where the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has a huge following.

A militant group operating in neighboring Syria calling itself the Brigades of Aiysha took credit for the deadly bomb attack, which killed at least 21 people and wounded around 200 others.

The blast took place after Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the August 7 explosions that injured four Israeli soldiers who had infiltrated into southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese government has declared Friday as a national day of mourning.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman has censured the bombing, saying the attack “bears the fingerprints of terrorism and Israel, and is aimed to destabilize Lebanon and deal a blow to the resilience of the Lebanese.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the incident as “completely unacceptable.”

In addition, the Turkish Foreign Ministry reacted to the bomb attack, saying Ankara “hopes that the perpetrators of this heinous attack will be identified and brought to justice as soon as possible.”