Lebanon enters 'third stage' of suicide bombings
Tuesday’s suicide attack on the Iranian Embassy in Beirut represents a new stage of violence in Lebanon, with Lebanese citizens targeting their compatriots at home.
The third stage of suicide bombings began in Beirut on Nov. 19. The two blasts that were carried out by two suicide bombers targeted the vicinity of the Iranian Embassy in the Lebanese capital as well as dozens of civilians and Shiite partisan, commercial and residential centers. The two operations — which were unprecedented in terms of their location and nature — occurred in the southern suburbs of Beirut, an area densely populated by Lebanese Shiites.
It is the third stage of suicide bombings in Lebanon — and the third on two levels: internal and external.
On Nov. 11, Hezbollah commemorated its first "martyr" on Lebanese territory. The first suicide bombing in modern Lebanon occurred on Nov. 11, 1982. On that day, a Hezbollah member named Ahmad Kassir blew himself up at the headquarters of the Israeli military governor in the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon. At the time, the Israeli army was occupying a large portion of Lebanese territory, after it invaded the country on June 6 of that year. That operation paved the way for a long era of suicide bombers, during which Hezbollah operatives as well as members of other religious, nationalist and secular parties targeted the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory.
On May 24, 2000, the last Israeli troops left Lebanon. Roughly five years later, on April 26, 2005, the Syrian army also withdrew from Lebanon. At the time, many people thought that the phenomenon of suicide bombings had ended.
