The powerful blast, which took place earlier near a local bank, targets Lebanon’s banking sector’s stability, and, eventually, the entire country, Lebanese Finance Minister Ali Khalil said Sunday.
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An AFP correspondent saw nearly all the entire glass facade of the headquarters of Blom Bank, one of the country’s largest, blown out, with debris littering the ground.
Police said they had no other immediate information about the blast. It was clear that the operation did not aim to cause fatalities, but rather to hit the banking sector now in a bad relation with the so-called Hezbollah after banks closed accounts linked to the party’s members in line with a USA law targeting the party’s financing.
Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said the attack was not linked to the Islamic State group, which has carried out several attacks in Beirut.
A security source said the bomb contained 2 kg of explosives. The Lebanese Red Cross said two people had suffered minor injuries in the blast.
Following the explosion in Beirut’s Verdun area, Lebanese Interior Minister Nohad al-Mashnouq refused to accuse any party before investigations were complete. That bombing was claimed by the Sunni Muslim Islamic State.
The last bomb attack to hit the Lebanese capital had killed more than 40 people in November in the city’s southern suburbs, an area where Hezbollah is dominant.
Television footage showed shattered glass and badly damaged cars in the vicinity of the blast, which occurred facing the popular Concorde Center where a movie theater and shops are located.
A bomb has exploded near the headquarters of a bank in central Beirut that is involved in a dispute over how to deal with Hizballah finances.
While he stopped short of directly blaming the Iranian-backed militant group for the attack, he said he expects banks would “implement the law to the letter”.
Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc issued a statement last week saying the United States law infringed Lebanon’s national sovereignty.
Central bank governor Riad Salameh last month said banks must comply with the law, but sought to ease concerns, assuring Lebanese citizens the regulations protect them from having bank accounts arbitrarily blocked or closed.
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Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc issued a statement last week reiterating its criticism of the central bank’s position, saying the United States law infringed Lebanon’s national sovereignty.
