Iran’s Embassy in Lebanon blown up

An al-Qaeda-affiliated organization has claimed responsibility for Tuesday morning’s bombings at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut.

Lebanese Sunni Sheikh Sirajeddine Zuraiqat, who is affiliated with the radical Sunni global jihad organizations in Lebanon, tweeted on a Twitter account attributed to him that “the Abdullah Azzam Brigades – the Hussein bin Ali cells – are behind the attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut.”

The report has not been confirmed by any other source.

According to Zuraiqat, the suicide bombing was carried out by “two heroes from the Sunni faction in Lebanon.”

At least 23 people were killed and 146 were injured in two strong bombings which rocked the area near the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. The embassy’s cultural attaché, Ibrahim Ansari, was among the dead.

The official Lebanese news agency reported that according to an initial investigation, the first blast was caused by a suicide bomber and the second one was triggered by a terrorist driving a car bomb. According to estimates, the explosive devices weighed more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds).

According to the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar network, the two explosions were 90 seconds apart. The embassy building sustained heavy damage, according to the reports, and at least 10 vehicles caught fire.

Eyewitnesses told the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Mayadeen network that the suicide bomber tried to enter the Iranian Embassy and that the embassy’s security guards opened fire at him.

Sheikh Zuraiqat, who claimed responsibility for the Lebanon blasts, said in August that the Ziad al Jarrah Battalion, which belongs to the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, was behind the firing of four records at the Galilee area. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades issued a statement on the matter several days later.

The deadly attack comes several days after Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah‘s rare appearances in south Beirut in honor of the Shiite Ashura holiday. In a speech he delivered before the holiday, Nasrallah said: “Tomorrow nothing but will separate us from Hussein but Allah’s will. No danger, no attack, no bloodshed and no car bomb.”

Several terror attacks have taken place in Lebanon in recent months, including in the Dahiya controlled by Hezbollah. Dozens of people have been killed in the attack, which were believed to be acts of revenge over the involvement of Hassan Nasrallah’s organization in the civil war in Syria.