Testing times in Tripoli

Last Friday two car bombs placed strategically outside Mosques frequented by Salafist preachers - vocal in their support of the Syrian opposition and critical of Hezbollah's military participation on behalf of the Syrian regime across the border - went off during Friday prayers. 30 people were killed and over 300 were injured. On saturday morning BEIRUTSTATEofMIND headed up to Tripoli to report on a manifestation of growing unrest in Lebanon:

Sitting on a street corner about 60 feet from the Salam Mosque in the Al-Mina district of Tripoli, 21-year-old Yasser looked sorrowfully into the distance. His head and left hand were wrapped in bandages. A line of dried blood snaked its way down from his temple to his chin. Fragments of glass and small chunks of concrete covered the ground around him next to a pile of tomatoes rotting under the summer sun. Farther up the road surrounding a crater, about ten-feet in diameter and six-feet in depth, the carcasses of burnt out cars lay at unnatural angles across the tarmac. The windows of surrounding buildings were blown out.

I had just finished my work for the morning and was in the mosque praying," said Yasser who moved to Lebanon fro Damascus two months ago in an attempt to flee Syria's ongoing civil conflict.

"I spent a lot of time here at the mosque, not just to pray but sometimes to sleep," he continued explaining that he has no fixed abode.

"I remember I was kneeling to pray and then suddenly I opened my eyes and I was in a hospital ward."

"Sometimes I just feel like there is no escape."

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Men overlook the damage outside the Salam Mosque, Tripoli. 24/08/13.

A crowd gathers outside the Salam Mosque, Tripoli, on Saturday morning. 24/08/13.

Men pass by a damaged vending cart outside the Salam Mosque, Tripoli. 24/08/13.

Blast damage on adjacent buildings, viewed from inside the Salam Mosque, Tripoli. 24/08/13.

Rotting Fruit, Salam Mosque, Tripoli. 24/08/13.

A klashnekoff-heavy motorcade of Bab al Tabbaneh residents parades round the Abu Ali roundabout
next to the Taqwa Mosque, Tripoli. 24/08/13.

Klashnekoff-heavy motorcade (2), Tripoli. 24/08/13.

Damage outside the Taqwa Mosque, Tripoli. 24/08/13.

A young man sits outside a damaged shop front next to the Taqwa Mosque, Tripoli. 24/08/13. 

Boy on BMX, man holding head, Taqwa Mosque, Tripoli. 24/08/13. 

A bulldozer  clears the blast site outside the Tawa Mosque, Tripoli. 24/08/13.