Soldier Killed, 25 Injured in Beirut Bombing

BEIRUT — A bomb exploded today at a crowded commercial center in Christian East Beirut, and police said the blast killed one Lebanese soldier and wounded 25 civilians.

The blast was the third deadly bombing this week in Beirut. Two car bombings--one Monday in East Beirut and the other Tuesday in the city’s Muslim western sector--killed 57 people and wounded 310 others.

Today’s mid-afternoon explosion sparked a fire at a taxicab parking lot at the Solemur building near an iron factory in East Beirut’s Dora district.

Ambulances evacuated the casualties and firefighters extinguished the blaze, police said. Eight taxicabs were demolished by the blast and glass shards littered the streets.

‘It’s a Small One’

Blood stained a sidewalk at the blast scene, which was cordoned off by army troops and Christian militiamen.

“Thank God it’s a small one,” said one shopkeeper at the scene, who refused to give his name. “We are used to bigger ones.”

Police said the bomb contained 11 pounds of explosives. Monday’s car bomb had a quarter ton of explosives.

Today’s blast occurred a few hours after President Amin Gemayel proposed an emergency session of Parliament at which he, the Cabinet and legislators would debate a new power-sharing formula to end Lebanon’s 11-year-old civil war.