Two explosions hit two mosques in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday, killing at least 42 people and wounding hundreds, intensifying the sectarian strife that has spilled over from the civil war in neighboring Syria. The apparently coordinated blasts – the biggest and deadliest in Tripoli since the end of Lebanon‘s own civil war – struck as locals were finishing Friday prayers in the largely Sunni Muslim city. Lebanese officials appealed for calm. The explosions in Tripoli, 43 miles from Beirut, came a week after a huge car bomb killed at least 24 people in a part of the capital Beirut that is controlled by the Shia Muslim militant movement Hezbollah. A recent resurgence of sectarian violence in Lebanon has been stoked by the conflagration in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is fighting a largely Sunni-led rebellion. Both Hezbollah and radical Sunni groups in Lebanon have sent fighters over the border to support opposing sides in Syria. Medical and security sources said the death toll from Friday's blasts in Tripoli had risen to 42 by late afternoon. Hundreds more were wounded, they said. Earlier, the Lebanese Red Cross said at least 500 people were hurt. The first explosion hit the Taqwa mosque, frequented by hardline Sunni Islamists, and killed at least 14 people there, according to accounts earlier in the day. Further deaths were reported from a second blast outside the al-Salam mosque, which the interior ministry said was hit by a car laden with 100kgs of explosives. BN
