BEIRUT – A powerful car bomb struck the southern Beirut stronghold of Lebanon’s militant Hizbullah on Thursday, Aug. 15, killing 22 people, wounding 120 and trapping many others inside damaged buildings, witnesses and emergency officials said.

The blast, which comes a month after another car bomb wounded more than 50 people in the same district of the Lebanese capital, took place amid sectarian tensions over the intervention of Hizbullah against rebels in Syria’s civil war.

A Sunni Islamist group, calling itself the “Brigades of Aisha,” claimed responsibility for the attack and promised more operations against Hizbullah. The statement which was verifiable was made in an internet video.

“I don’t know what happened. It’s as if we were struck by an earthquake,” one young man at the scene told Reuters, bleeding from a wound to his stomach.

Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said hospitals across the capital admitted a total of 16 bodies and 226 wounded people.

At the heart of the site, where fires raged an hour after the blast, the twisted remains of a large van could be seen.

Many cars were engulfed in flames, the charred bodies of drivers and passengers still visible inside. The blast sent a column of black smoke above the densely populated area and the facades of several residential buildings were damaged.

Al Mayadeen television said some people were trapped inside apartments at the scene, close to the Sayyed al-Shuhadaa (Martyrs) complex, where Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah often addresses his followers.

Residents of southern Beirut say Hizbullah, backed by Iran and Syria, had been on high alert and had stepped up security in the area after warnings from Syrian rebels of possible retaliation for the group’s support for President Bashar al-Assad.

“I heard a huge explosion. It threw me several meters,” said a woman in her 50s, adding that she had been talking to her brother in his shop. “I don’t know what happened to my brother. I can’t find him,” she said, bleeding from wounds to hands and face.

The group that claimed responsibility for the explosion threatened more attacks against Hizbullah.

“This is the second time that we decide the time and place of the battle … And you will see more, God willing,” the “Brigades of Aisha” statement said, describing Hizbullah and Nasrallah as Iranian agents.

“We send a message to our brothers in Lebanon; We ask you to stay away from all the Iranian colonies in Lebanon … because your blood is precious to us,” a masked spokesman, flanked by two men brandishing rifles, said in the video.

“But Hassan Nasrallah is an agent of Iran and Israel and we promise him more and more (attacks).”

Lebanese people gather at the site of a car bomb between the Bir el-Abed and Roueiss neighbourhoods, in the southern suburb of Beirut on August 15, 2013

However, many Lebanese politicians pointed the blame at Israel. “The explosion was carefully prepared and one of the theories is that it could have been an Israeli retaliation for the Labouneh operation,” Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said.

He was referring to an incident last week when four Israeli soldiers were wounded in southern Lebanon. Nasrallah said on Wednesday, Aug. 14, they were targeted by Hizbullah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati declared Friday would be a day of mourning for the victims of the Beirut blast.

There have been two previous attacks in southern Beirut this year, as Syria’s conflagration seeps across the border. Two months before the July 9 car bomb, two rockets were fired into the area.

Sectarian violence fueled by the Syrian conflict has also erupted in the Bekaa Valley and the Mediterranean port cities of Tripoli and Sidon, reflecting the renewed tensions spreading through the Middle East.

The attack generated wide condemnation from foreign countries and both sides of the Lebanese political divide.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman condemned the attack, saying that “the criminal act targets Lebanon, as a whole and not just the suburb region.”

Prime Minister-designate Tamam Salam called the bombing a “barbaric act” targeting innocent civilians, as well as Lebanon’s security, stability and national unity. He called on the Lebanese people to show cohesiveness and solidarity, the National News Agency reported.

Hizbullah’s political rivals former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea both condemned the attack, as well.

Hariri called the explosion a “horrific crime,” and Geagea said that it targets all of Lebanon, not only a certain part.

“The blast is part of a terrorist scheme that aims to sow strife and evil across Lebanon which is grappling  to stay at bay from the crisis in the region,” Hariri said in a statement.

Hariri asked the Lebanese people not to be dragged into the strife.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt said the bombing was a terrorist attack against innocent civilians, speculating that Israel was behind the crime.

Hizbullah’s ally Speaker of the Parliament Nabih Berri similarly accused Israel of being behind the attack, calling on the Lebanese people to unite in the face of danger.

“This crime only serves the Israeli enemy that is working on dealing a blow to the components of national unity in Lebanon,” he said.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly also condemned the attack and called on all groups to remain calm and exercise self-restrain.

Syria’s Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi said he “strongly” condemns the attack and sent his government condolences to the victims’ families.

The attack also received condemnation from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

“He expressed his condolences for those killed and extends his deep sympathies to those injured,” a UN statement said.

The European Union and the Turkish foreign ministry issued statements, condemning the bombing, as well.  

– Reuters, Al Akhbar, TAAN