Car bombs change Beirut’s coffee habits

Beirut: When Omar Jabaly plans an outing in Beirut these days his main concern is finding the least likely place to be targeted by car bombers.

“A sidewalk cafe is more risky than a mall,” said Jabaly, 39, an engineer for a local telecommunications company in the Lebanese capital.

“There’s security at mall entrances while a suicide bomber can blow himself up in front of a cafe.”

The wave of car explosions started in July with a suicide bombing in Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold and spread across Sunni and Shiite communities as Lebanon gets mired even deeper in the sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict next door.

The attacks intensified in recent weeks, with one that killed former Finance Minister Mohammad Chatah, a senior Sunni figure, in December followed by another in a Shiite area of the capital that left at least five people dead last week.

Security is only expected to deteriorate further as long as the almost three-year-old Syrian civil war lasts. The heightened state of alert is reflected on the streets of Beirut, synonymous with violence and car bombings throughout the 1980s as Lebanon endured its own 15-year civil war.

Many Lebanese are adjusting their daily routines, staying away from crowded places, avoiding social visits and keeping track of who parks on their street. A billboard advertises 3M’s blast protection film for windows.

“Thank God my two children live abroad,” said Dunia Al Awar, 55, as she shopped for vegetables. “When I leave home these days, I never know if I will return.” Nader Omari, 35, who sells T-shirts and balloons with imprints of pictures of them, said he’s not leaving anything to chance. Since the latest bombings, he makes sure that cars parked outside his store on a narrow street off Beirut’s Hamra shopping thoroughfare belong to people he knows.

Just around the corner is the home of an anti-Syria former prime minister while the Saudi embassy is less than 500 metres away. Saudi Arabia provided support to the rebels trying to oust Al Assad in Syria since March 2011.

“A lot of convoys use this street and I want to make sure there’s no car bomb waiting for them,” said Omari. “It’s scary just being on the streets these days.”

Amid the violence and tension, Lebanon’s economy has suffered, with gross domestic product expected to maintain the same rate of 1.5 per cent growth it has had since the Syrian uprising began, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund. That compares with 9 per cent in 2009 and 7 per cent in 2010, according to the IMF.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said the government is concerned about more violence though warned against causing alarm with repeated reports of bomb plots. “We’re following the security situation with great concern, but this shouldn’t justify the panic the rumours have caused,” Charbel said in remarks published in the Al Joumhouria newspaper on Thursday.

For their part, investors are less concerned and the bond market hasn’t reflected the mix of economic, security and political travails in a country whose government resigned 10 months ago and is still without a permanent replacement.

— Washington Post