Suicide attack rocks Lebanese cafe

A suicide bomb attack on a cafe in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Saturday killed at least seven people and injured more than 30 — the latest attack to hit a region buffeted by violence linked to the civil war in neighboring Syria. The Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack in the predominantly Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen was carried out by one suicide bomber, the army said. It was an act of "revenge for the Sunnis in Syria and Lebanon," the Nusra Front said on a Twitter account operated by the group's media arm. 

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour called for unity in Lebanon, where sectarian divisions have been exacerbated by the war in Syria, where the Alawite-led government of President Bashar al-Assad is fighting an insurgency now dominated by Sunni Islamist groups including the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

“This is the moment for consensus among Lebanese to protect Lebanon,” Abu Faour told New TV. 

The targeted cafe was on a street dividing Jabal Mohsen from the Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh, which has often turned into a frontline for conflict between Sunni and Alawite communities over the years.

Three dozen people were wounded in Saturday’s attack. The governor of northern Lebanon ordered a curfew until 7 a.m. in Jabal Mohsen and the army set up a security cordon around the cafe, the National News Agency reported.

The last major flare-up in the predominantly Sunni Muslim city of Tripoli was in October, when at least 11 soldiers and 22 Sunni fighters were killed.

Lebanese security officials have repeatedly warned of plans by ISIL and Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Syria to destabilize Lebanon. Sunni fighters staged an incursion into the border town of Arsal last August and are still holding captive 26 members of the security forces seized in the raid.

Al Jazeera and Reuters