The harrowing despair of the victim’s relatives

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By Omar IBRAHIM
AFP - August 14, 2008

On Wednesday morning, nine soldiers were killed in a blast near a bus in Tripoli. Five other persons, including a child, perished in the attack. The child was polishing shoes when the attack occurred. Almost forty people were injured, and around fifteen are still hospitalized; some of them suffer from serious injuries. During the following hours, “My son, my son” shouted a mother, hitting her chest before fainting outside the hospital of Tripoli. Her son, a soldier, had just been killed in one of the most fatal attacks that hit Lebanon during these last two years. “He was just twenty two, and honored to serve the army. Why, why? , shouted the brother’s victim. He tries to revive his mother.

Without any news…

Photo by: AFP

“We are begging you, we need blood, please run to the hospitals and donate your blood”, said a soldier to the passengers gathered in the attacked area. Before even knowing if their husbands, brothers, or sons were among the victims, the women fainted when they saw the corps in the hospitals. In the blasted area, a shocked man is searching for his brother among the corpse lying on the street, between “puddles of blood”. Have you seen a tall young man, with black hair and black eyes? Asked the man, with his dazed look. « He left the house this morning to take the bus and go to work. He doesn’t have a cell phone… I didn’t get any signs of life from him”, he explained.

A crazed woman in her fifties is looking around her, “I don’t know if my son is among them, I don’t know where he is. He should have taken the bus this morning to go to his military job.

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A real nightmare for the inhabitants

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