2015 Beirut Bombings

On 12 November 2015, two suicide bombings occurred in a commercial district of the Bourj el-Barajneh suburb of southern Beirut, Lebanon, an area inhabited mostly by Shia Muslims and considered a stronghold of Hezbollah. The first bombing occurred outside a Shia mosque, and the second took place five to seven minutes later inside a nearby bakery, about 20 metres away, as bystanders tried to help those injured in the initial blast. A potential third attacker was found dead, reportedly killed by the second explosion before he could detonate his own explosives belt. The Lebanese Health Ministry reported at least 43 deaths, with Health Minister Wael Abu Faour stating that 239 people were injured; Lebanon's Red Cross/Red Crescent affiliate said over 200 people were injured. The attack was described as the worst terrorist attack in Beirut since the end of the Lebanese Civil War, occurring twelve days after the bombing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula and one day before the November 2015 Paris attacks, both also claimed by ISIL.

Among those killed were two staff members of the American University of Beirut, three Lebanese-American residents of Dearborn, Michigan (a 49-year-old woman and a young couple, whose three-year-old son was severely injured), and Hajj Hussein Yaari, described as a senior figure in Hezbollah's security system. Adel Termos, a Beirut resident, was killed after reportedly tackling one of the bombers, an act credited with potentially saving lives; he was widely described on social media as a hero.

Within 48 hours, Lebanon's Internal Security Forces arrested six suspects, reportedly including five Syrians and a Palestinian, later expanding the total to eleven arrests and then announcing two further Syrian and Lebanese suspects, including some detained in a Palestinian refugee camp in Bourj el-Barajneh and in a flat in Beirut's Achrafieh district allegedly used to prepare explosive belts. Investigators said the original plan had been to send five suicide bombers to target a hospital in the neighborhood but that heavy security forced a change of target. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah stated that Syrian and Lebanese detainees were arrested on suspicion of involvement. Investigators also drew a link between this attack and a November 5, 2015 bombing in Arsal that killed four people.

ISIL claimed responsibility, stating that two Palestinians and a Syrian carried out the attacks. On November 26, Lebanese media outlet Al-Manar reported that a team of Syrian and Hezbollah agents had killed a man suspected of smuggling the two bombers into Lebanon from Raqqa, during an operation in Homs Governorate, though the timing of that operation was not specified.

Lebanese officials, including Acting President and Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, condemned the attack and declared a day of national mourning. International bodies including the United Nations and numerous governments issued condemnations, and Amnesty International denounced the attack as showing "appalling disregard for human life."