37 killed in Beirut bombings

Two explosions in the Lebanese capital, Beirut have killed some 37 people and injured around 181 others according to international media.

According to the Guardian, the attacks, suicide bombings, took place in a busy area of a southern Beirut suburb, a stronghold of Lebanese Hezbollah.

Police have said the two men on foot had set off suicide vests in front of a shopping centre at around 6:00 pm local time, the BBC adds.

According to reports, the blast was the first to target Beirut’s southern suburbs since June 2014, when a suicide car bomb killed a security officer who had tried to stop the bomber. However, prior to that, a string of attacks had targeted Hezbollah strongholds throughout the country, and between July 2013 and February 2014, there were nine attacks on Hezbollah bastions, most claimed by Sunni extremists.

The groups claimed the attacks were in revenge for Hezbollah’s decision to send thousands of fighters into neighbouring Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against a Sunni-dominated uprising.