The U.S. Embassy restricted the movement of its staff Wednesday and called on Americans to be on the alert a day after a bombing attack targeted one of its vehicles, killing three bystanders and injuring 26 other people. The bodies of the three victims of the bombing were identified as Joseph al-Khoury, a Sin el-Fil resident and owner of the Fiat car that took the brunt of the attack, Fouad Kamal al-Abssi from Tripoli, and Ghassan Hussein al-Mohammed, a Syrian.
Lebanese troops set up checkpoints and diverted traffic Wednesday near the north Beirut seaside highway where the bomb exploded -- a road that embassy staff would have had to take to attend a farewell reception for the departing U.S. ambassador Jeffrey Feltman scheduled later Tuesday. It was canceled.
The targeted car was apparently one of the embassy vehicles that routinely scout roads before U.S. diplomats travel, Lebanese security officials said, according to the AP.
The Embassy advisory did not specify how much its personnel were now limited in movement. The embassy, about 13 kilometers from the explosion site in the suburban hills northeast of Beirut, already is heavily fortified, protected by American and Lebanese security with a strong Lebanese army presence in the area. "The Embassy ... reminds all Americans in Lebanon to maintain a high level of vigilance, especially when planning travel," the advisory said. "Americans are also advised to avoid popular gathering spots."
Meanwhile, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah condemned the bombing and warned that the "whole world cannot impose (a solution) upon us that does not comply with our interests." Nasrallah stressed that internationalizing the Lebanon political crisis was "useless."
"In Lebanon there is willpower, as well as independent and national forces and the majority of the Lebanese people that have specific interests. The whole world cannot impose (a solution) upon it that does not comply with its interests," Nasrallah said in a late Tuesday speech broadcast on a giant screen in front of thousands of supporters in downtown Beirut.
He warned that "No one can put pressure on us," neither through threatening to internationalize the Lebanon crisis nor through rallying world support against Hizbullah.
Nasrallah also accused Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government of politicizing bombing attacks, charging that the cabinet "always covers its failure to discover the criminals by politicizing the attacks."
He said that any U.S. attack on his patron Iran would be "the biggest folly" in American history. Nasrallah said Iran would defend itself against any U.S. attack.
"If America launches a war against Iran, it will be the biggest folly committed by America in its history," he cautioned.
