Iranian cultural attache among 20 dead in Beirut blasts
Twenty people have been killed and 95 others injured in two explosions near the Iranian Embassy in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
The National News Agency said the dead included two Iranian nationals.
One of the Iranian dead was confirmed as cultural attache Sheikh Ibrahim Ansari.
The mid-morning blasts hit Beirut’s upmarket Jana neighborhood, a stronghold of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group.
One explosion blew out the large main gate of the Iranian mission, damaging the three-storey building. Debris was scattered across the street and cars were on fire as people ran away from the chaotic scene.
A Lebanese security official confirmed the casualty figures.
Attacks have targeted Lebanon’s Shiite strongholds recently in what many see as retaliation by extremists for Hezbollah’s role in neighbouring Syria.
