(MENAFN- The Peninsula) A suicide blast killed seven people and wounded 36 others in a flashpoint Alawite neighbourhood of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli yesterday, a Red Cross official and the army said.
"Seven people were killed and 36 others wounded in a blast that struck the Jabal Mohsen neighbourhood," the Red Cross official told AFP.
The army said that, "at around 7.30pm (1730 GMT), a suicide attacker struck a cafe in Jabal Mohsen, killing and wounding several citizens."
A security source said the bomber lived in Mankubeen, a Sunni majority neighbourhood just 500 metres (yards) away from Jabal Mohsen and that the army had arrested his father.
The source said the bodies of two of the victims had been ripped apart by the force of the blast.
The army cordoned off the area, keeping journalists at bay, said an AFP correspondent.
A man who was lightly wounded said he was near the scene of the blast when the attacker struck.
"I was at the cafe with other people, when we suddenly heard a first blast," Zuheir Al Sheikh said.
"Then we heard a huge blast, though I have no idea what caused it," he added.
Some media said two suicide bombers had struck but there was no official confirmation of these reports. Lebanese politicians and movements were quick to condemn the bombing, branding it a "terrorist" act and calling for unity. "This crime will not terrorise the Lebanese or the residents of Tripoli, and it will not weaken the government's resolve to confront terrorism and terrorists," Prime Minister Tammam Salam said in a statement.
The powerful pro-Syrian Shia Hezbollah movement blamed "takfiri (extremist) terrorists" for carrying out the attack, in a reference to radical Sunni militants.
Lebanon's second city Tripoli has seen frequent violence.
Fighting between the two districts in recent years has killed scores of people, many of them civilians caught in the crossfire.
Though the tensions have their roots in the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war, sectarian hatred has spiralled ever since the outbreak of a revolt in neighbouring Syria.
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