Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah accused radical Sunni Islamists yesterday of being behind a car bomb that killed 24 people in Beirut and vowed that the attack would redouble his group’s commitment to its military campaign in Syria.

In a fiery speech to supporters, one day after the deadliest bombing in the capital since Lebanon‘s civil war ended two decades ago, Nasrallah raised the stakes by pledging to join the battle in Syria himself if needed.

Thursday’s blast in the Shi’ite militant Hizbollah’s south Beirut stronghold followed months of sectarian tension and violence in Lebanon fuelled in part by Hizbollah’s intervention against Sunni Muslim rebels in Syria‘s civil war.

“It is most likely that a takfiri group was responsible for yesterday’s explosion,” Nasrallah said, referring to radical Sunni Muslim factions linked to al-Qaeda, many of whom are fighting with Syrian rebels against President Bashar al-Assad.

“If you think by killing our women and children ... and destroying our neighbourhoods, we would retreat from the position we took (in Syria) you are wrong,” he said in a combative speech broadcast by videolink from a secret location to his supporters.

“If we had 100 fighters in Syria, now they will be 200. If we had 1,000, they will be 2,000. If we had 5,000 they will be 10,000. If the battle with these takfiri terrorists requires that I and all Hizbollah should go to Syria, we will go.”

Thursday’s blast came a month after a car bomb wounded 50 people in the same district of the Lebanese capital – an attack that Nasrallah also blamed on takfiris, who consider all but the most radical Sunnis to be infidels whose blood can be spilt.

Defence Minister Fayez Ghosn said a Syrian man had been arrested for suspected involvement in the July bombing, underlining the extent to which Lebanon has become embroiled in its neighbour’s conflict.

Thursday’s explosion engulfed a busy street in flames, reviving memories of the destruction inflicted by Lebanon‘s civil war.

Forensic investigators, emergency workers and security forces were still working at the site yesterday, amid burnt-out cars and charred facades of residential buildings.

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