The sources told The Daily Star that preliminary information indicated the first suicide bomber was on foot and the second drove a bomb-laden vehicle only a few meters away from the Iranian embassy in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Bir Hasan two minutes later.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television reported that seconds before the car bomb exploded, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up.
The security sources said Iranian embassy cultural attaché Sheikh Ibrahim Ansari, who had recently arrived in Beirut to join the Iranian mission, and two Iranian civilians were among the dead.
Several embassy guards were also wounded in the bombings, according to the sources who spoke to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.
Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi confirmed Ansari’s death and said the Iranian embassy was the target of the “terrorist attack.”
Roknabadi also accused Israel of being behind the explosions.
“Such acts don’t affect our path,” he told the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen television channel.