Lebanon caught in crossfire of Syrian war again with car bomb blast

A powerful car bomb that tore through a busy area of Beirut has killed at least 18 people in the bloodiest attack so far linked to Syria’s civil war on Lebanese civilians.

The blast, in a neighbourhood that is a stronghold of Hezbollah, is the second in just over a month to hit one of the Shi’ite militant group’s bastions of support, and the deadliest in decades.

It raises the spectre of a sharply divided Lebanon being pulled further into the conflict next door, which is being fought on increasingly sectarian lines pitting Sunnis against Shi’ites.