Car bomb kills 8 in Beirut, wounds dozens

A car bomb ripped through eastern Beirut on Friday, killing at least eight people, shearing the balconies off apartment buildings and sending bloodied residents staggering into the streets in the most serious blast the Lebanese capital has seen in more than four years.Dozens of people were wounded in the attack. While the motive was not immediately known, many Lebanese quickly raised the possibility it was connected to the civil war in neighboring Syria.Tensions have already been rising in Lebanon over the war, and clashes have erupted between supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad and backers of the rebellion against his regime. The office of an anti-Syrian Christian political party is located near the site of Fridays bombing, though it was not immediately clear if it was the intended target.The blast ripped through a narrow street at mid-afternoon in Beiruts mainly Christian Achrafieh neighborhood, an area packed with cafes and shops. The street was transformed into a swath of rubble, twisted metal and charred vehicles.Bloodied residents fled their homes while others tried to help the seriously wounded. One little girl, apparently unconscious and bleeding from her head, was carried to an ambulance in the arms of rescue workers, her white sneakers stained with blood.Lebanese security officials and Red Cross workers said eight people were killed and 60 wounded, 20 of them critically. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to talk to the press.The state-run National News Agency put the number of wounded at 78.Health Minister Ali Hussein Khalil called on all hospitals to accept the wounded from this terrorist bombing.Although the motive behind the attack was still unknown, the countrys fractious political leaders immediately began laying blame and tying the bombing to the crisis in Syria.