3rd Bombing in Beirut This Week Kills Army Officer; 27 People Hurt

BEIRUT —  A bomb exploded Friday in a crowded commercial district in Christian East Beirut, killing an army officer and wounding 27 people, police said.

The third bombing in the city this week came a few hours after President Amin Gemayel called on Syria to help end Lebanon’s 11-year-old civil war.

The blast, caused by 10 pounds of an explosive hidden in a bag between two cars parked in the Dora commercial district, occurred at 3 p.m. as streets were jammed with pedestrians, shoppers, taxi drivers, workers and motorists. Police said the blast set fire to 10 cars, damaged eight shops and shattered window panes within a 50-yard radius.

No one claimed responsibility although Christian leaders have laid the blame for previous bombings in East Beirut on Syria, the dominant foreign power broker in Lebanon and a nation with influence over the country’s powerful Muslim militias.

Car bombs ripped through Muslim West Beirut and the Christian east earlier in the week, killing 56 people and wounding 302. The explosions raised fears of a new round of retaliatory bombings similar to the wave that racked the capital last year.

Bomb Defused

Earlier Friday, police defused a 37-pound bomb planted in the East Beirut industrial suburb of Mkaless, the Christian Voice of Lebanon radio station said.

The bombing came a few hours after Gemayel, in an Army Day address to the nation, appealed to Syrian President Hafez Assad to help end Lebanon’s civil war.

Gemayel and Assad have been at odds since last January when Gemayel refused to implement a 1985 Syrian-engineered peace accord aimed at ending Lebanon’s civil war. Gemayel, a Christian, rejected the accord, signed by Lebanon’s main Muslim militias and a powerful Christian militia, saying it gave greater power to the Muslims and reduced presidential powers.