The Lebanese army’s Feb. 12 arrest of Palestinian Naim Abbas, a leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Abdullah Azzam Brigades, led to great relief among the Lebanese in general and the inhabitants of Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Hermel region in particular. This arrest followed a recent spate of terrorist bombings that targeted those two areas. But the twin suicide bombings against the Iranian Culture Center and its surroundings on the morning of Feb. 19 dissipated this optimism and signaled the return of fear, caution and sadness to the southern suburbs.

The latest twin suicide attacks against the Iranian Culture Center took the lives of seven people and injured more than 100 others. Yet, no center employees were wounded. The victims were mainly inhabitants of the area, passersby and a few children from the orphanage of the Islamic Foundation, a well-known Sunni charity.

The suicide bombers simultaneously targeted the street with two explosives-laden cars in a manner similar to the attack perpetrated against the Iranian Embassy in Beirut in November. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the Feb. 19 attack, which it said came in response to Hezbollah’s actions in Syria. The brigades vowed to conduct further attacks.

The two explosions perhaps negated the effects of the breakthrough achieved by Lebanese army intelligence when it apprehended Abbas. It also reduced the optimism engendered by the formation of a new government on Feb. 15, among the Lebanese in general and the southern suburb’s inhabitants in particular.