Suicide bombings at Iranian Embassy in Beirut kill 23

Suicide bombers struck the Iranian Embassy on Tuesday, killing 23 people, including an Iranian diplomat, and wounding more than 140 others in a “message of blood and death” to Iran and Hizballah — both supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The double bombing in a Shi’ite district of Beirut pulled Lebanon further into a conflict that has torn apart the country and came as Assad’s troops, aided by Hizballah militants, captured a key town near the Lebanese border from rebels. The bombing was one of the deadliest in a series of attacks targeting Hizballah and Shi’ite strongholds in Lebanon in recent months. A Lebanese group linked to al-Qaida, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, said it carried out the attack as payback for Hizballah’s backing of Assad forces against the mainly Sunni rebels. The Syrian army’s border offensive is part of a larger government push that started last month and has seen forces loyal to Assad seizing the momentum in the war, taking one rebel stronghold after another. The attacks raised fears that Islamic extremists, now on the defensive in Syria, would increasingly hit back in Lebanon. The country is suffering the effects of competing sectarian loyalties. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades said attacks would continue until Hizballah withdraws its forces from Syria. “People fight outside (Lebanon), but send their messages through Lebanon. With bombs,” said a mechanic whose windows were shattered by the blasts. The explosions hit the neighborhood of Janah, a Hizballah stronghold and home to several embassies, leaving bodies and blood on the glass-strewn street amid burning cars. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the bombings “senseless and despicable.” And United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all Lebanese to recognize that “such appalling and indiscriminate acts of violence” target everyone in the country, said Farhan Haq, the UN’s acting deputy spokesman. President appeals for Iran: Ahead of the U.S. and five other world powers resuming talks today with Iran in Geneva, Switzerland, President Barack Obama personally appealed to senators Tuesday to delay seeking additional sanctions on Iran while the U.S. and world powers negotiate a nuclear deal. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who attended the White House meeting, said Obama asked lawmakers to pause for “a period of time.” Corker said there will not be any sanctions amendments to an annual defense bill added before Thanksgiving