The explosion struck the district of Bir al-Abed, and was believed to be a car bomb, Lebanese media reported. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The bombing came amid longstanding fears here that Hezbollah, the powerful Shiite Muslim militant group and political party, would face attacks in response to its increased military intervention in support of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, against the two-year uprising challenging his rule.
A particular worry has been that car bombs will strike the sprawling southern suburbs of Beirut, known collectively as the Dahiya, which means suburb in Arabic, where Hezbollah has its offices and many supporters. Some Syrian rebel commanders have threatened to attack Hezbollah there. Residents say Hezbollah has increased security in the area.
Ali Fayyad, a Hezbollah member of Parliament, warned against jumping to conclusions and noted that no particular figure appeared to have been targeted. The explosion took place in a supermarket parking lot, he said. The area is densely populated and a bomb placed on a busy street could have caused more casualties, raising the possibility that it was a calibrated attack.
Another Hezbollah legislator, Ali Ammar, blamed “Israel and its agents.” Hezbollah has portrayed the Syrian uprising as a tool of Israel and the West and part of an effort to weaken Hezbollah, which depends on Mr. Assad’s government to provide a conduit for arms from Iran that allow it to confront Israel.
Tammam Salam, Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, called for a meeting of political leaders todiscuss the bombing.
Hezbollah fighters played a key role in helping the Syrian government retake control of the strategic town of Qusayr near the Lebanese border after more than a year of rebel control, and some Syrian rebels say Hezbollah forces have been aiding the Syrian military in a renewed attack on rebel strongholds in the nearby city of Homs.
Lebanon is deeply divided between supporters and opponents of Mr. Assad, and the pressures of the conflict in the neighboring country have strained Lebanon’s fragile political balance. Lebanese Sunni militants have long crossed the border to fight with the rebels, and tensions increased after Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters to Qusayr. Its fighters have also battled rebels in the suburbs of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has urged Lebanese militants to keep the fighting inside Syria and not battle in Lebanon. But Hezbollah was accused last month of sending fighters to assist the Lebanese Army in clashes in the southern city of Sidon that drove out a radical Sunni cleric who had been a vocal critic of Hezbollah, using anti-Shiite sectarian slogans to denounce its intervention in Syria. Weeks earlier, a rocket attack struck the Chiyah area of the southern suburbs, injuring four people.
In far-flung Beirut neighborhoods on Tuesday, the news of the explosion spread quickly, as people shared the news on their cellphones and anxiously discussed it in shared taxicabs. Photographs shared on social media showed people rushing into the streets near the scene of the explosion as dust and black smoke rose into the air.
Title: 18 Reported Injured in Beirut Explosion
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