The narrow, winding alleys of Burj al-Barajneh in south Beirut are
enveloped in sadness and a tense resignation, with the grief echoed in
the darkened skies and intermittent rain.
Almost overnight, new portraits of victims – many of them children, mostly young boys – who were killed in twin suicide blasts on Thursday have been posted up around the impoverished neighbourhood.
Islamic State (Isis) claimed responsibility for the attacks, in which a bomber detonated his explosives next to a crowded bakery as people streamed on to the street after sunset prayers, and then, as onlookers rushed to aid the victims, a second bomber blew himself up just 50 metres up the road.
With at least 43 dead and hundreds injured, it was Lebanon’s worst bombing since the August 2013 blasts in Tripoli, which killed 47 . But if it had not been for Adel Termos, it could have been much worse.
Witnesses and family members said Termos, a 32-year-old father, rushed to tackle the second bomber from behind after seeing him approach the gathering crowd. The intervention forced the bomber to detonate his suicide vest and is thought to have saved dozens of lives. Termos, however, died in the blast.
“Tell me congratulations,” said Basima Atat, Termos’s wife. “My six-year-old daughter now says dad is a martyr, a hero, in heaven. Do you know what it means to be a hero?”
Plastic chairs for the many mourners that had visited the house over the last three days stood above rain-soaked asphalt, while Arabic coffee slowly smouldered on the coals nearby. Festooned on the walls were flags of Hezbollah, which enjoys popular support in the majority-Shia neighbourhood, and an image of the party’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
Almost overnight, new portraits of victims – many of them children, mostly young boys – who were killed in twin suicide blasts on Thursday have been posted up around the impoverished neighbourhood.
Islamic State (Isis) claimed responsibility for the attacks, in which a bomber detonated his explosives next to a crowded bakery as people streamed on to the street after sunset prayers, and then, as onlookers rushed to aid the victims, a second bomber blew himself up just 50 metres up the road.
With at least 43 dead and hundreds injured, it was Lebanon’s worst bombing since the August 2013 blasts in Tripoli, which killed 47 . But if it had not been for Adel Termos, it could have been much worse.
Witnesses and family members said Termos, a 32-year-old father, rushed to tackle the second bomber from behind after seeing him approach the gathering crowd. The intervention forced the bomber to detonate his suicide vest and is thought to have saved dozens of lives. Termos, however, died in the blast.
“Tell me congratulations,” said Basima Atat, Termos’s wife. “My six-year-old daughter now says dad is a martyr, a hero, in heaven. Do you know what it means to be a hero?”
Plastic chairs for the many mourners that had visited the house over the last three days stood above rain-soaked asphalt, while Arabic coffee slowly smouldered on the coals nearby. Festooned on the walls were flags of Hezbollah, which enjoys popular support in the majority-Shia neighbourhood, and an image of the party’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
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