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"BEIRUT, Oct 19 (Reuters) - A huge car bomb exploded in central Beirut during rush hour on Friday, killing eight people, wounding about 80 and raising fears of renewed sectarian violence in a country still scarred from a long civil war.
The explosion did not appear to target any political figure in Lebanon's divided community but it occurred at a time of heightened tension between Lebanese factions on opposite sides of the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
It ripped through the street where the office of the anti-Damascus Christian Phalange Party is located near Sassine Square in Ashrafiyeh, a mostly Christian area...
...Lebanon's religious communities are divided between those supporting Assad and those backing the rebels trying to overthrow him.
The blast occurred during rush hour, when many parents were picking up children from school, and sent black smoke billowing into the sky.
Eight people were killed and at least 78 were wounded, the state news agency said, quoting civil defence officials...
...Tension between Sunnis, Shi'ites and Christians in Lebanon has continued after the civil war but has increased since the Syria conflict erupted.
Sunni-Shi'te rivalry hit a peak when former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, a Sunni, was killed in 2005. Hariri supporters accused Syria and then Hezbollah of killing him - a charge they both deny. An international tribunal accused several Hezbollah members of involvement in the murder.
Hezbollah's political opponents, who have for months accused it of aiding Assad's forces, have warned that its involvement in Syria could reignite the sectarian tension of the civil war.
The last bombing in Beirut was in 2008 when three people were killed in an explosion which damaged a U.S. diplomatic car."
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