ISIS Claims Deadly Dual Beirut Bombings
— -- The terror group ISIS has claimed responsibility for dual bombings in Beirut today that claimed at least 37 lives.
In statements circulated on Twitter and through the Telegram messaging app, ISIS said it detonated a motorcycle bomb in the Lebanese capital and then, after witnesses rushed to the scene, a suicide bomber unleashed another deadly blast on the crowd.
An official with the Lebanese Red Cross told a state media organization that the blasts killed 37 people and wounded 180 others, according to The Associated Press. Citing a local security official, the AP reported a third bomber was found dead while wearing an intact suicide vest, possibly an unintended victim of the second bomber's blast.
Southern Beirut, where the bombings reportedly took place, is a stronghold for Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Shia militant group currently fighting ISIS, a Sunni-dominated group, in Iraq and Syria.
The neighborhood where the bombs went off, Burj el-Barajneh, is one of the most densely populated areas in Beirut. It lies within the so-called Hezbollah security perimeter, but it is also home to a diverse Lebanese population as well as one of the biggest Palestinian refugee camps in the country.
A Lebanese law enforcement official told ABC news that two of the perpetrators were Palestinian and the third was Syrian, as was also reported in the local press.
