WarSclerotic

At least 20 people were killed and more than 120 were injured on Thursday when a car bomb went off near a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon, a security source in the country told Reuters.

The Lebanese Armed Forces stated that 60-80kgs. of explosive material was used in the blast. A witness said at least five nearby buildings were damaged and many cars in the area were destroyed. The blast sent a column of black smoke over the densely populated area in the south of the Lebanese capital.

Several minutes after Thursday’s blast, live television footage showed fires still burning in the street where the explosion took place. The facades of neighboring residential buildings were also badly damaged.

Al Mayadeen television said some people were still trapped inside buildings at the scene, close to the Sayyed al-Shuhadaa (Martyrs) complex, where Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah often addresses his followers.

A witness said that “Hezbollah forces hermetically sealed the area, and dozens of ambulances arrived at the scene.”

A Sunni Islamist group calling itself the Brigades of Aisha claimed responsibility for the explosion, saying it targeted the militant group Hezbollah and promising more attacks.

“This is the second time that we decide the place of the battle and its timing…And you will see more, God willing,” said a masked man, flanked by two others brandishing rifles, in a video statement addressed to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Sectarian tensions have been high in Lebanon following the intervention of Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah in support of Assad against a two-year revolt led by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority. Hezbollah also fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006.

Senior Hezbollah figures said that the blast “has Zionist fingerprints all over it.”

Vice President of the Higher Shiite Council, Sheikh Abd al-Amir Kabalan, said the the attack “serves the Zionist agenda in the area.”