Death toll revised to three in Lebanon bus blasts

A pair of bombs minutes apart tore through two buses near a mountain town north-east of Beirut today.

At least three people were killed and 20 more wounded, the country’s state-run news agency said.

The official news agency and some police officials originally put the death toll much higher. But the state-run agency, quoting officials, later dropped the death count to three and said another 20 were wounded. The Red Cross also said it had so far accounted for three bodies.

The bombings come a day before pro-government supporters were to mark the anniversary of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

A mass gathering was planned in central Beirut tomorrow and Interior Minister Hassan Sabei said senior government, military and security officials would meet to discuss ways to safeguard the rally. The organisers said there were no plans to cancel the demonstration.

Pro-government politician Walid Jumblatt said the explosions were meant to scare people away from the rally.

“It’s to terrorise people who are willing to come to mark the second anniversary” of Hariri’s death, Jumblatt told Al-Jazeera television.

A security official said the bomb first exploded in one bus, at about 9am local time, causing damage and casualties.

As people rushed to the scene, a second explosion ripped through a second bus that had driven up behind it, the official said,.

The Voice Of Lebanon radio station said the targeted buses were taking people to work.

Katina Shibli was driving on the road ahead of the first bus when she heard the blast. “We stopped immediately, I rushed to help,” she said. “The traffic backed up quickly, when within 10 minutes, the other explosion happened.”

Genevieve Hayek, in her 70s, the owner of a roadside snack bar yards from the bombing scene said that “barely had help arrived when the second explosion occurred”.

“We ran away when the second explosion occurred for fear of more,” she said “May God’s wrath fall on all of them who did this, what is the fault of the people just going to work?”

Officials said the confusion over the toll was being caused because the dead and wounded being taken to various hospitals. Red Cross operations chief George Ketanneh told the Voice of Lebanon radio station his team had counted only three dead in two hospitals. He added that many of the wounded were in serious condition.

Security officials estimated the size of the “banana shaped” bombs at 4 to 7 pounds each. They said that they were packed with metal pellets and placed under seats in the two buses.

The blasts at Ein Alaq occurred near Bikfaya, the mountain hometown of the family of Pierre Gemayel, the industry minister who was killed by assassins on a street in November. His father, former President Amin Gemayel, visited the White House and met with Bush last week.

The former president, a Christian, told the Voice of Lebanon that “alien hands,” were behind the explosions. “Lebanese do not kill Lebanese.”

Ambulances, sirens wailing, could be heard driving up the mountain road, about 30 minutes north-

east of Beirut.

In the heavy rain, the two buses lay some 30 yards apart, the first with its roof twisted and its back side shattered completely, an indication the explosive had been placed there.

Troops and police, using sniffer dogs quickly sealed off the area and blocked the highway, a usually busy road linking Christian towns in the mountains with the capital.

Lebanese TV footage showed twisted wreck of the minibus, its roof blown off, and ambulances carrying away people. Blood was pooled in several places near the wreckage.

Appeals for urgent blood donations were broadcast as ambulances took casualties to hospitals in the region and in Beirut.

The explosions took place in the Christian heartland as most of the previous mysterious explosions that rocked Lebanon since the Hariri assassination, targeting anti-Syrian politicians, journalists and neighbourhood.