A bomb set off a raging inferno in an industrial area of a mainly Christian neighborhood of Beirut on Saturday, injuring at least three foreign workers. Antoine Gebara, mayor of the northeastern Beirut area of Bouchrieh, said the explosion was caused by a bomb placed near the buildings in an industrial area. "It appears it is an explosive charge that was placed there," Gebara told Lebanese Broadcasting Corp.
"They must love us — we got it twice in a week," he said referring to an explosion in the nearby predominantly Christian neighborhood of Jdeideh last Saturday that injured nine people. A bomb on Wednesday killed three people in a Christian commercial center. Witnesses said the blast on the eve of the Easter holiday occurred three hours before Catholics were to head to a midnight Mass.
No group is claiming responsibility for the attack and the Lebanese government has failed to date to find any culprits in any of the bombing attacks that have been carried out in the pre-dominantly Christian neighborhoods of Beirut in the last two weeks. Nor is there any evidence to suggest that the government is actively searching for those who are responsible for this attack. It certainly is starting to appear that there are those in Lebanon who simply long for the old days and will do anything to re-create the past. No doubt those responsible for these current attacks regret that this time Arafat is deader than the proverbial door nail.
The shots that broke the camel’s back in the past was a sniper attack on Phalange affiliated Christians attending mass at the Church of Notre Dame de la Deliverance in Ain El Remmaneh neighborhood of East Beirut on April 13, 1975 which resulted in 4 dead. That attack coupled with the government of Lebanon’s self-imposed impotence to take decisive action or offer protection to the Christian community of Lebanon from the PLO caused the rise of Christian paramilitary extremists groups who felt compelled to take justice into their own hands and retaliated by hijacking a bus and executing 26 Palestinians. That act sparked an open armed confrontation between Phalange and PLO supporters in the streets of Beirut. As the conflict continued and gained momentum no one was allowed to sit out the dispute as fighting erupted throughout the country. Especially vulnerable were towns with mixed sectarian populations who were forced to seek safety with their religious/ethnic groups.
No comments:
Post a Comment