Lebanese president warns against attacks aiming at flaring up chaos

Rocking Tripoli's Al-Zahiriyya and the Al-Mina neighborhoods, mostly inhabited by Sunnis, two simultaneous bomb attacks on Al-Taqwa and Al-Salam Mosques during Friday prayers killed at least 50 people and wounded 352 others, according to security sources.

Issuing written statement, Suleiman denounced the attack and warned against "domestic and foreign enemies inside Lebanon targeting the country's peace and stability," calling on all Lebanese people to "unite and stand shoulder to shoulder."

Cutting short a visit abroad to meet with security officials after the twin blasts, he also urged the Lebanese military, security and judicial authorities to make their utmost efforts to find out the perpetrators of the attacks and bring them to justice.

Lebanon’s prime minister-designate, Tammam Salam, who was assigned the task of establishing a new Lebanese government after the resignation of Najib Miqati on March 22, also condemned the attack.

"The Tripoli crime is an additional indicator that the situation in Lebanon has reached a very dangerous level, requiring a political and security alarm in Lebanon," Salam said in a statement. 

"Terrorist groups once again targeted Lebanon and its children to stir chaos and civil war among the people. There were no attacks on the houses of Allah during the darkest days of the Lebanese civil war. Today's attacks are the concrete evidence of how insistent the murderers are to provoke people for the sake of their heinous plots," he added.

Hezbollah and Lebanon's Marouni Church Patriarch Bashara Rai also condemned the explosions in Tripoli.

Lebanese security sources announced that 70 kg of explosives were used in the attack on Al-Salam Mosque while the amount used for Al-Taqwa Mosque attack was 60 kg, both of which they said were detonated by remote control.