BEIRUT – An al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a suicide car bombing last week in a Shiite-dominated neighborhood in Lebanon, as its fighters fought other rebels in neighboring Syria in the most serious infighting since the uprising began.
At least five people were killed in the Thursday attack targeting a south Beirut neighborhood that is bastion of support for the Shiite group Hezbollah.
ISIL vowed more attacks.
It was “the first small payment of a heavy account which these criminal hypocrites should wait for,” it said in a statement, referring to Hezbollah. The statement was posted on a website used by Sunni militants.
The al-Qaida group sought to punish Hezbollah – and their ordinary Shiite Lebanese backers – for sending fighters to Syria to shore up forces of the Syrian president Bashar Assad, who is trying to quell an armed uprising against his rule.
Thursday’s bombing came a week after a car bombing in Beirut killed prominent Sunni politician Mohammed Chatah. The top aide to ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri was critical of Assad and his Hezbollah allies.
In November, suicide bombers targeted the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, killing more than 20 people. Iran is the chief patron of Hezbollah and an ally of Syria, and the Islamic Republic’s embassy is located in an upscale Shiite district.
ISIL is one of the strongest rebel groups in Syria.
Its fighters have fanned into Syria, taking advantage of the upheaval to assert power in areas seized by rebels. It has imposed its strict version of Islamic law, kidnapped and killed journalists, Syrian anti-Assad activists and others critical of their rule.
Tensions between ISIL and other rebel brigades have simmered for months. They erupted Friday after residents in rebel-held areas came out to demonstrate against the al-Qaida linked group, accusing them of killing a man who was trying to mediate between the groups, said the U.K.-based al-Tamimi, which closely follows Syrian militant groups.
Fighting between ISIL and other anti-Assad rebel groups quickly spread through the northern province of Aleppo, the northeast province of Idlib and parts of the central province of Hama, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
But in other rebel-held parts of Syria, ISIL fighters cooperate with rebel brigades, said al-Tamimi. He said it wasn’t clear if the fighting would spread, and noted the rebels fighting ISIL belonged to rival brigades, with little to unite them – save for their hatred of the al-Qaida group.
Still, the fighting had embarrassed the group, he said.
He said it was likely they claimed responsibility for Thursday’s bombing to try to refocus attention on their achievements: punishing Hezbollah and Shiites.
“It’s more of a public relations thing,” he said. “Like – we have been able to strike Lebanon, we are the leading force.”
The Western-backed coalition of Syrian opposition groups in exile welcomed the attacks on ISIL.
Monzer Akbik of the Syrian National Opposition group described the group as “the enemy of the revolution and an enemy of the people” and called on the international community to support moderate fighters against the Assad regime.
