DHAKA: Two suspected suicide bombers, one driving a rigged car and the other on a motorcycle, attacked the Iranian embassy in Beirut Tuesday, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 150.

Lebanese security sources said, reports TDS.

The sources told TDS that preliminary information indicates the first suicide bomber was on foot and the second drove a bomb-laden vehicle only a few meters away from the Iranian embassy in the predominantly Shia neighbourhood of Bir Hasan two minutes later.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television reported that seconds before the car bomb exploded, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up.

The security sources said Iranian embassy cultural attaché Sheikh Ibrahim Ansari, who had recently arrived in Beirut to join the Iranian mission, and two Iranian civilians were among the dead.

Several embassy guards were also wounded in the bombings, according to the sources who spoke to TDS on condition of anonymity.

Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi confirmed Ansari’s death and said the Iranian embassy was the target of the ‘terrorist attack’.

Roknabadi also accused Israel of being behind the explosions.

‘Such acts don’t affect our path,’ he told the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen television channel.

A number of Lebanese officials arrived at the scene of the blast, including Hezbollah MP Ali Meqdad who said ‘no matter how much they try, they will fail’.

BDST: 1722 HRS, NOV 19, 2013
RoR/BSK