In scenes reminiscent of Lebanon’s devastating civil war, charred bodies lay in the streets Friday after twin car bombs exploded outside mosques packed with worshippers, killing 29 people and wounding hundreds.
The coordinated attacks in this predominantly Sunni city — the deadliest fallout from Syria’s civil war to hit Lebanon — raised sectarian tensions to dangerous levels amid fears the country was slipping into a prolonged cycle of revenge.
The blasts marked the second such attack in just over a week. A deadly car bombing targeted an overwhelmingly Shiite district south of Beirut controlled by the militant Hezbollah group on Aug. 15, demonstrating the alarming degree to which the country is being torn apart by the civil war next door.
The attacks Friday shocked residents of Tripoli, which has been the scene of frequent clashes between supporters and opponents of President Bashar Assad in recent months.
But the city, Lebanon’s second-largest, has not seen such bombings in decades.
The blasts were clearly intended to cause maximum civilian casualties, timed to go off at midday Friday outside the Taqwa and Salam mosques, which are known to be filled with worshippers at that time on the Muslim day of prayer.
“Lebanon has officially entered the regional war which has been raging in Syria and Iraq,” said Randa Slim, a scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
Local TV stations aired footage of the moments after the explosions: Bodies scattered beside burning cars, charred victims trapped in smoking vehicles and bloodied casualties emerging from thick, black smoke.
In the chaotic aftermath, bearded gunmen took to the streets, firing in the air, attacking soldiers and sealing off the two mosques where the car bombs went off. Later, they roamed the streets in SUVs, weapons sticking out of the windows.
The two explosions went off about five minutes apart. The force of the blast at the Taqwa mosque propelled a car onto its roof.
President Michel Suleiman cut short a visit abroad and returned to the country to follow the situation.
