Blast kills at least two in Hezbollah Beirut stronghold

AT LEAST two people were killed yesterday in a mysterious blast that shook Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Beirut, a security official said, amid reports it could have targeted the Palestinian Hamas movement.

"At least two people have been killed and a number of others injured in an explosion in the southern suburbs" of Beirut where the Shiite Hezbollah movement has its headquarters, the official said.

"The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined."

Earlier the official national news agency NNA said the blast could have been aimed at a member of the Palestinian Hamas movement in Lebanon.

The blast was "the result of three bombs placed under a car whose owner is said to be a member of Hamas," the agency said, adding that two people were wounded in the explosion.

But in a terse report, quoting unnamed security officials, Hezbollah's Manar television said the "blast took place in an office of the Hamas movement causing casualties." It did not give further details.

Hamas spokesman Raafat Murra said the Palestinian Islamic movement has an office in the area where the blast occurred but could not immediately say if there were casualties among members of the group.

An AFP photographer said the blast occured in an alley in Harek Hreik, metres away from a community centre where Hezbollah was organising a ceremony to commemorate the Shiite rituals of Ashura.

Hezbollah security forces cordoned off the area keeping journalists at bay, the photographer said.

Local television stations also reported that an unspecified number of people were wounded in the blast, which they said targeted a Hamas official who they did not identify.

Witnesses said that local Hamas official Ali Baraka has an office in the area where the blast occured.

Hezbollah and Hamas are both close allies and arch-foes of Israel.

In 2006 Israel waged a devastating 34-day war on Hezbollah in Lebanon, which devastated the southern suburbs and killed more than 1200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

The blast also came on the eve of the first anniversary of Israel's 22-day offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip during which some 1400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

Shiites in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon wrap up on Sunday the annual 10-day Ashura rituals which commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has called on Lebanon's Shiites to take part massively in Sunday's ceremony which will include a huge march across the southern suburbs.

The Australian