BEIRUT: Two suicide bombers blew up their cars near an Iranian cultural centre in Beirut on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding scores, in the latest in a string of deadly attacks targeting strongholds of the Shia militant group Hezbollah and its allies. An Al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was retaliation for Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian war alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces.

The morning blasts in the Bir Hassan district set cars and trees ablaze and shattered the windows of nearby buildings as the wounded, including children, were loaded on stretchers into fire engines and ambulances.

Rahmeh Abboud, a 20-year-old student, said she was in a passenger van when she heard the explosions.

The driver immediately stopped the car and told everybody to get out. “The explosions were very strong, the ground shook. I came here and it was like the world had turned upside down,” she said.

The Lebanese army said the bombers were driving BMW and Mercedes cars, which were packed with explosives and mortar shells to maximise the damage. Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said the blasts killed four people and wounded more than 100.

The explosions seriously damaged the white facade of Iran’s cultural centre, despite blast walls that were recently erected around the white building. The state-run National News Agency quoted the Iranian embassy as saying no diplomats or workers were wounded. Mangled metal hung from a smashed building that once held a pharmacy, clothing shop and a well-known Oriental sweet shop, Gondoline.

Smeared blood and tattered clothes dried on the ground and the charred remains of six cars were at the site of the two bombs. Forensic officials in white body suits inspected a large crater near a building. Dozens of soldiers blocked off the area with barbed wire and concrete barricades as armed young men pushed other bystanders back.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades said on its Twitter account that the “invasion of the Iranian cultural centre” was in “retaliation for Iran’s party fighting along the criminal regime in Syria.”

It was referring to Hezbollah, which has been a staunch ally of Assad’s government and its fighters have been instrumental in helping dislodge Syrian rebels from key areas near the border with Lebanon.—AP