Explosion in Lebanese Capital Beirut

There has been a reported explosion in Beirut..

not much detail given other than a small car bomb wounding 6 people in the northern district of New Jdeideh at around 10:45pm (GMT) this evening outside of an office complex.

Syria is deny responsibility for this.


(EDIT: to include link and additional info.)

Link

No person was in the vehicle at the time damage not extensive (radius of about 150ft).

[edit on 18/3/05 by Klepto]

www.reuters.com...;jsessionid=SQWPJSBOU1B5MCRBAEOCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=7949222


Just found a link,

A Reuters correspondent on the scene said the blast had destroyed the first floor of an apartment building and blown out windows in surrounding buildings.

Cars parked near the explosion were mostly destroyed.

Security forces and ambulances flooded the area. It was unclear who might have been the target of the blast, which occurred after midnight.

What would anyone gain from blowing up a bomb in an unprominent area, without an obvious target?

Originally posted by TPL
What would anyone gain from blowing up a bomb in an unprominent area, without an obvious target?

This too is something I have been pondering...

The only purpose this served was to cause very mild civil disruption..

No caulaties, this was not targeted at anything tactical..

I cannot see how this explosion (small as it has been described) could serve a purpose.. It would be interesting to know what the office was dealing with..

This could be however scare tactics by local criminals to extort money from the locals under the guise of terrorist activity to not arise personal suspisions.. lets wait and see...

just to prove they're still here... syrian intelligence wants to prove they're not gone it's a simple message... no killed just a simple message

...We can't even rule out some Christian Phalangist millitia created a little smoke in their own neighbourhood to keep the anti-syria momentum alive, werent those the same guys that reported about the yet to be confirmed Coup D'etat in Damascus ???


[edit on 19-3-2005 by Silenus]

the phalangists are in desarray right now, the official party is pro-syrian but many members are anti-syrian.
Plus there are no militias left in Lebanon except Hizbullah and palestinian groups...
Anyway if they wanted to keep the momentum alive they would have created smoke in a sunni neighborhood, a much more volatile reaction would've happened and they would've shielded their people from the effects of this puff of smoke....