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Blast in Beirut Sparks Fears Of 'Iraqization' of Lebanon

For the second time in just over a month, a major bomb attack has hit Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs.
People gather around the site of an explosion in Beirut's southern suburbs, August 15, 2013. Twenty people were killed in the explosion which struck the southern Beirut stronghold of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group on Thursday, a security source said. An army statement said the cause of the explosion was a car bomb. The blast engulfed several vehicles in flames and trapped many people in nearby buildings which were damaged in the explosion. REUTERS/ Hasan Shaaban (LEBANON - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) -
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Circles close to Hezbollah have not ruled out the possibility that a suicide bomber was behind the blast that struck Beirut's southern suburbs Thursday afternoon [Aug. 15]. They maintain the possibility that it was a suicide bomber who blew himself up in a car bomb, the Iraqi way. This augurs in a new phase of heated developments in Lebanon, which some have predicted for a while, based on several indicators.

This latest explosion was the second of its kind in just more than a month. On July 9, a car bomb exploded in a densely populated neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, the majority of whose residents are Shiite. The two incidents, however, differ in the size of the blast and the number of victims. While the first bombing only resulted in a few injuries, the second explosion was very large and resulted in dozens of casualties. There are reports of about 20 dead as of the time of this writing.

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