At least 23 people were killed and 146 wounded after a suspected twin bomb attack rocked the Iranian embassy in southern Beirut Tuesday, officials said. A local al-Qaida affiliate, the Abdullah Azzam brigades, claimed responsibility in the latest sign that Syria's civil war is spilling over the border, NBC News reported. Iran's ambassador to Lebanon said Iranian cultural attaché Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ansari was killed in the attack. Security camera footage indicated that the blasts were carried out using a car and a suicide bomber on a motorcycle, officials told Lebanese media. One of the explosions blew out the large black main gate of the Iranian mission, damaging the facility, Reuters reported. The blasts were the latest in a string of bomb attacks in Lebanon, which has fallen prey to Shiite-Sunni sectarian violence linked to the conflict in Syria.
