BEIRUT: The wounded from a midnight suicide bomb explosion outside a café near a Lebanese Army checkpoint in Beirut rose to 15, the Lebanese Red Cross said Tuesday.
It said the wounded, all from the Abu Assaf Café, suffered minor injuries in the attack shortly before middnight in the Beirut neighborhood of Tayyouneh. The café-goers were watching the Brazil vs. Cameroon game as part of World Cup 2014.
Security sources told The Daily Star the wrong-way suicide bomber was driving an old red Mercedes. He blew himself up near an Army checkpoint in Tayyouneh, at one of the main entrances into the capital's southern suburbs.
They said the assailant is believed to be a Syrian man.
The state-run National News Agency said the force of the blast had tossed the suicide bomber against the wall of a fourth floor apartment in a nearby building. Human remains and blood littered the balcony floor.
Military Prosecutor Saqr Saqr ordered security agencies to launch an investigation.
As soon as the explosion was heard, dozens of people flocked to the bombing site prompting the Lebanese Army to fire shots in the air to disperse the crowds and facilitate rescue and evacuation operations.
Eyewitnesses said that the remains of a human body – of a brain namely- were found at the site of the bombing. Some of the remains landed on a balcony on the fourth floor of a nearby building, they added.
The eyewitnesses noted that the bombing caused significant material damages and several cars were wrecked as a result of the explosion.
A suicide bombing at a police checkpoint on the Beirut-Damascus highway last Friday fueled fears of violent spillover from Syria and Iraq. A police officer was killed and 33 people were wounded in the bombing.
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